IC-NRLF 


27 


!NIV£i<SITY 

OF 


THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 


ITS  RELATION  TO  SHAKESPEARE'S 
EARLIER  AND  LATER  WORK 


BY 


DAVID  LAURANCE  CHAMBERS,   A.M. 


PUBLISHED    BY 
THE    GRADUATE    SCHOOL   OF   PRINCETON    UNIVERSITY 

Tj 
UN, 

PRINCETON 

THE    PRINCETON   UNIVERSITY    PRESS 
1903 


Copyright,  1903, 
-I  By  David  Lauratice  Chambers. 


CONTENTS 

Page. 
I.     PROSE 7 

II.     RIME 10 

III.  BLANK  VERSE 23 

A.  STRESS 24 

B.  SUBSTITUTION 33 

C.  FEMININE  SYLLABLES 40 

D.  END-STOPPED  AND  RUN-ON  LINES 48 

E.  LIGHT  AND  WEAK   ENDINGS 53 

F.  SPEECH  ENDINGS 57 

IV.  SUMMARY 59 

APPENDIX 67 

TABLES  FOR  TWENTY-SIX  PLAYS 68 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 68 


115874 


PREFACE. 

THIS  little  book  had  its  origin  in  a  paper  prepared  in 
the  spring  of  1902  for  a  Seminar  course  in  Macbeth, 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  Thomas  Marc  Parrott. 
My  design  had  been  to  present  concretely  a  few  of  the 
metrical  peculiarities  of  the  play  under  discussion,  and 
to  show  as  briefly  as  possible  its  general  place  in  Shake- 
speare's versification.  But  at  the  very  threshold  of 
investigation  I  found  that  the  subject  of  metrical  changes, 
which  I  imagined  to  have  been  worked  out  with  scien- 
tific definiteness  and  completeness,  was  still  largely  a 
matter  of  dispute  and  conflicting  testimony,  that  results 
with  the  most  unreliable  support  were  frequently  ac- 
cepted as  established  facts,  that  the  tabulations  which 
had  been  made  were  widely  scattered,  that  the  excellent 
work  of  German  critics  in  this  field  was  ignored  by 
most  English  writers,  and,  finally,  that  Macbeth  itself 
offered  unexpected  metrical  difficulties.  I  became 
gradually  involved  in  a  series  of  intricate  problems, 
and  so  this  thesis  grew  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  its 
original  purpose. 

It  now  attempts  to  show  when  certain  metrical  phe- 
nomena appeared  in  Shakespeare's  work,  why  they 
appeared  (as  far  as  that  can  be  determined),  and  what 
stage  they  had  reached  in  Macbeth.  To  carry  out  this 
purpose  statistics  have  been  gathered  from  various 
sources,  criticised  and  elaborated.  In  many  instances 
only  the  figures  for  the  total  number  of  occurrences 
could  be  obtained,  and  these  had  to  be  converted  into 
percentages  before  it  was  possible  to  base  safe  general- 
izations upon  them. 


6  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

The  essay  endeavors  also  to  set  forth,  more  fully 
than  has  been  hitherto  attempted,  the  metrical  evidence 
in  regard  to  the  authorship  of  disputed  passages  in 
Macbeth. 

I  desire  to  acknowledge  my  great  indebtedness  to 
Professor  Parrott  for  the  illuminating  suggestion  and 
careful  criticism  with  which  he  has  aided  me  at  all 
stages  of  my  work,  and  to  Dr.  W.  P.  Woodman  for  his 
kindness  in  reading  the  proof. 

DAVID  LAURANCE  CHAMBERS. 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


I. 

PROSE. 

The  broadest  possible  division  of  a  Shakespearean 
play  is  into  prose  and  verse.  Evidently  the  relative 
proportions  of  this  division  in  the  different  dramas  will 
not  serve  as  a  general  test  for  their  chronological  ar- 
rangement, dependent  as  is  the  amount  of  prose  upon 
the  extent  of  the  comic  element  which  the  author  desired 
to  introduce,  and  upon  the  number  and  prominence  of 
the  prose-speaking  characters.  Says  Mr.  Henry  Sharpe,1 
"The  time  at  which  the  plays  were  written  does  not 
appear  to  have  much  to  do  with  the  quantity.  Roughly 
speaking,  there  is  least  prose  in  the  early  and  late  plays, 
and  most  in  those  in  the  middle  as  to  date."  In  partic- 
ular cases  the  ratio  is  sometimes  suggestive.  From  the 
very  start  Shakespeare  employed  a  liberal  admixture 
of  prose  in  the  comedies,  especially  for  parts  of  low 
humour.2  In  his  first  notable  and  undisputed  tragedy, 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  there  is  a  considerable  sprinkling  of  it. 
But  for  some  reason  or  other  (perhaps  the  influence  of 
Marlowe's  unvarying  grandiloquence  in  Edward  II.)  he 
avoided  its  use  in  the  histories  until  i  Henry  IV?  Later 
on,  he  extended  its  range  of  effects  to  include  even  \ 
Hamlet's  imaginative  discourse  (Hamlet,  II.  2.  304  ff.),  1 
though  the  introduction  of  verse  in  a  prose-scene  always  1 
marks  a  rise  to  a  higher  dramatic  pitch,  a  higher  emo- ] 
tional  plane,  verse  being  the  natural  language  of  emotion/ 

1  Transactions  of  the  New  Shakspere  Society  1880-6,  p.  525. 

2  There  are  over  1,000  lines  of  prose  in  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  spoken  mainly 
by  Sir  Nathaniel,  Holofernes,  Dull,  Costard,  Moth  and  Jaquenetta.     But  the 
proportion  varies  in  the    comedies  from   The  Comedy  of  Errors,  one-eighth 
prose,  to  Merry  Wives,  nine-tenths  prose. 

8  With  the  single  exception  of  Richard  III.,  I.  4. 


8  THE   METRE   OF  MACBETH 

In  Macbeth  prose  makes  its  appearance  in  four 
places,  though  only  one  of  these  (V.  i)  is  a  "  prose- 
scene  "  properly  so  called.  In  Act  I.,  Scene  5,  it  is 
used  for  Macbeth's  letter  to  his  Lady;  prose  is  the 
normal  medium  for  letters,  proclamations,  and  other 
written  documents.1  The  Porter's  rhythmical2  speech 
(II.  3)  is  a  good  example  of  the  use  of  prose  for  purposes 
of  comedy,  though,  as  befits  the  tone  of  the  play,  the 
jesting  here  is  rather  grim.  Poor  men  and  clowns  are 
regularly  speakers  of  prose  in  Shakespeare.  Macduff, 
except  for  two  lines,  descends  to  the  level  of  the  Porter, 
because,  as  Sharpe  frames  the  law,3  "if  an  educated 
man  who  usually  speaks  metre  meets  a  poor  man,  both 
speak  prose."  Being  the  language  of  every-day  life 
prose  contributes  much  to  that  effect  of  the  reflux  of 
the  human  world  upon  the  fiendish  which  De  Quincey 
makes  the  rationale  of  the  scene.  With  the  subsidence 
of  the  Porter  and  the  return  to  serious  business  at  the 
entrance  of  Macbeth,  prose  gives  way  to  blank  verse. 
Act  IV.,  Scene  2,  illustrates  how  prose  lowers  the  dra- 
matic pitch  for  the  sake  of  emotional  relief.  After  Lady 
Macduff's  bitter  discussion  of  her  husband's  conduct 
with  Ross,  in  impassioned  verse,  she  begins  a  gentle 
word-play  with  her  son  in  prose,  half-sad,  half-merry. 
It  is  not,  however,  altogether  prose.  LI.  40,  41  are 
surely  prose,  but  11.  42,  43  are  as  surely  verse.  Prose 
is  resumed  in  1.  44  and  thence  continued  as  far  as  1.  64. 
This  rather  curious  intermingling  has  led  Professor 
Liddell4  to  question  the  genuineness  of  the  prose  parts. 

1  See  Sharpe,  p.  557.     The  only  exceptions,  he  says,  are  Titus  And.,  II. 
3.268  ff.  ;  All's  Well,  III.  4.4  ff.,  IV.  3.252  ff. 

2  See  Dowden  in  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  276. 

3  p.  558. 

4  Elizabethan  Edition,  p.  165. 


PROSE  9 

He    would   have    Lady    Macduff's  words  in  11.   42,  43 
follow  immediately  on  1.  37,  and  close  the  dialogue,  and 
he  thinks  that  this  excision  would  relieve  the  play  of 
an  inhuman  and  distorted  representation  of  childhood. 
Rather  it  would  deprive  the  play  of  a  most  dramatic 
and  most  Shakespearean  contrast  between  the  prattle  of 
family    life    and  the  tragic  summons  to  instant  death. 
The  boy  is    no    more    precocious    than    Shakespeare's 
other  children,  than,  say,  the  Duke  of  York  in  Richard 
III.     And,  finally,  this  alternation    of  prose  and  verse 
is    by    no    means   unique.     For   another   example   see 
Henry    V.,     IV.    8.       The     arrival   of    the    messenger 
with    his    awful    tidings    requires    a  re-heightening  of 
the  pitch  and    a  return   to   verse.       Messengers   natu- 
rally   and     regularly     speak    in    metre.     In    Act   V., 
Scene   i,  the    Doctor    and    the    Gentlewoman    discuss 
Lady  Macbeth's   mental    perturbation    in    prose.     The 
conversation    consists    of  simple  professional  question- 
ing   and    a    direct    report    of    symptoms.1      The    tone 
is  low.     It  might  seem  strange  at  first  sight  that  Shake- 
speare should  employ  prose  in  the  sleep-walking  scene 
which  follows,  where  the  dramatic  excitement  is  surely 
intense.     The  attempt  to  explain  this  apparent  vagary 
has  led  to  some  extraordinary  criticism.2    But  in  reality 
it  is  no  vagary.     Shakespeare  deems  prose  peculiarly 
appropriate  to  the  broken  utterance  of  madness  (real  or 
assumed)  in  Hamlet  and  Lear,   of  frenzy  in   Othello,   of 
intoxication  in  Antony  and  Cleopatra?  and  so  also  of  the 

1  See  Delius,  Jahrbuch  V.,  p.  267. 

2  Hudson,  for  example,  says  :  "  I  suspect  that  the  matter  of  this  scene  is 
too  sublime,  too  austerely  grand,  to  admit  of  anything  so  artificial  as  the  meas- 
ured language  of  verse  ;  and  that  the  Poet,  as  from  an  instinct  of  genius,  felt 
that  any  attempt  to  heighten  the  effect  by  any  arts  of  delivery  would  impair  it." 
Quoted  in  Furness's    Variorum,  p.  259. 

3  See  Hamlet  II.  2.171  ff.,  III.  1.103  #.,  IV.  5.172  ff.  ;  Lear,  III.  4.51  ff., 
IV.  1.58  ff.,  IV.  6.131  ff.  ;  Othello,  IV.  1.36  ff.  ;  Ant.  and  Cleo.,  II.  7.28  ff, 


10 


THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 


irrationality  of  "  slumbery  agitation  "  in  Macbeth.  The 
pity  and  terror  of  the  scene  are  brought  out  in  the 
Doctor's  blank-verse  speech  at  the  end,  which,  however, 
contrary  to  the  general  rule,  indicates  a  falling-off  in  the 
emotional  intensity.  The  function  performed  by  prose  in 
the  other  great  tragedies — that  of  introducing  variety 
in  the  composition — is,  in  Macbeth,  largely  performed 
by  lyrical  passages  in  a  different  metre. 

II. 
RIME. 

TABLE    OF    RIMES.1 


•-  $ 

0 

T> 

p  S2 

1 

2. 

.1 

E 

£ 

y  ^ 

Cfl 

PLAY. 

j*« 

0 

v  u 

0  S 

O 

. 

u'S 

I* 

w> 

J3 

. 

4) 

I 

u  SB  S 

s  s 

•2"c 

£  £4 

E 

c 

H 

w.S-S 

§.2 
£3 

«^S 

II 

3 

1 

1 

Love's  Labour's  Lost 

62.2 

55o 

:  1.  12 

66 

36 

242 

42 

187 

Comedy  of  Errors    . 

19.4 

216 

:  5-3 

o 

O 

64 

0 

Merchant  of  Venice  . 

4.6 

85 

:22. 

34 

9 

4 

0 

2 

Henry  V    .        ... 

3.2 

62 

.  n^.    -. 

2 

8 

o 

T  A 

o 

Hamlet  

2  7 

64 

••^6  8 

8 

60 

8  1  rim 

es  in  p 

lav 

Othello       

**.  / 

•2    2 

W£f 

78 

•  J*»«  W 

o 

2? 

o 

o 

ia.y 

Q 

Lear  ^    .        ... 

j*~ 

3-4 

5-8 

/  w 

70 
108 

:2g.6 

0 
121 

*o 
97  ? 

o 

Q 

o 

Q 

2 

J 

Macbeth 

Ant.  and  Cleo.  .  .    . 

.7 

34 

1:76.1 

0 

6 

0 

0 

0 

Winter's  Tale   .    .    . 

.0 

0 

i:inf. 

0 

57 

choru 
lines 

s:  32  r 

ime- 

Tempest    

.1 

2 

1:698. 

20 

50 

masqu 

e:  54  r 

ime- 

lines 

12  son 

g 

Of  the  metrical  portion  of  the  play  the  most  com- 
prehensive division  is  into  rimed  lines  and  unrimed 
lines,  or  blank  verse.  The  percentages  of  the  rimed 

1  The  per  cent,  column  is  from  Konig,  p.  131.  The  rest  are  from  Fleay's 
Tables  in  Ingleby,  p.  99  ff .  with  some  corrections.  I  have  verified  their  figures 
for  Macbeth  and  calculated  the  ratio  column  on  the  basis  of  Fleay's  Figures. 
The  eleven  rimes  in  i,  3,  which  Fleay  counts  as  song,  I  should  prefer  to 
include  without  distinction  in  the  short  riming  lines. 


RIME  ii 

lines  of  less  than  five  feet1  in  the  different  plays  form 
no  chronological  criterion,  as  the  introduction  of  such 
lines  was  contingent  upon  the  character  of  the  work 
Shakespeare  had  in  hand,  and  very  likely,  too,  upon 
the  company  having  a  popular  singer.3  It  is  as  natural 
to  find  such  rimes  in  The  Tempest  as  in  A  Midsum- 
mer-Night1 s  Dream.  The  speeches  of  the  three  weird 
sisters3  are  prevailingly  tetrameter  with  a  trochaic 
cadence,  the  rhythm  which  Shakespeare  almost  always, 
if  not  always,  adopts  in  songs  and  in  lyrical  passages 
hardly  to  be  told  from  songs.  "That  the  individual 
verses  do  not  all  contain  exactly  the  same  number 
of  syllables  is  obvious  to  the  most  careless  reader; 
but  the  rhythmical  equivalence  of  them  never  admits 
of  doubt.  The  movement  is  as  free  and  varied  as 
that  of  popular  rimes  and  jingles,  and  consequently 
as  hard  to  deal  with  by  rule-of-thumb  scansion."4  The 
fact  that  the  speeches  of  Hecate  and  of  the  First  Witch 5 
are  in  iambic  measure  creates,  I  think,  a  strong  pre- 
sumption against  their  Shakespearean  authorship. 
With  the  other  arguments6  impugning  the  genu- 
ineness of  these  speeches — their  superfluous  and  incon- 
gruous character,  etc. — we  are  not  here  concerned. 
Moreover,  if  Shakespeare  wished  to  write  iambics, 
Heaven  save  the  foolish  critic  from  believing  that  he 


1  I  here  include  lines,  themselves  without  rime,  but  in  the  midst  of  riming 
passages,  e.  g^  I.  3.17. 

2  See  Spedding,  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  29. 

3  I.  1. 1-7,  n,  12  ;  I.  3.8-37;  IV.  1.4-38,  44-47,  64-68,  no,  in.  There 
are  also  a  number  of  short  trochaic  unrimed  lines  of  various  length  :  I.  3.1-3, 
62-69  5  IV.  I-3»  107-109. 

4  Manly,  p.  xxxii. 

5  III.  5.4-33  ;  IV.  1.39-43,  125-132. 

*  Admirably  stated  by  Mr.  E.  K.  Chambers  in  the  Arden  Edition  and  Mr. 
C.  H.  Herford  in  the  Eversley  Edition.  Mr.  A.  W.  Verity  in  the  Pitt  Press 
Edition  argues  for  the  other  side. 


1 2  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

could  not  do  so !  'But  it  remains  true  that  for  some 
reason  or  other  he  seldom  cared  to  employ  the  four- 
stress  iambic  couplet.  The  only  other  places  where  it 
occurs — except  as  an  occasional  variation  in  the  midst 
of  trochaics,  as  in  the  Epilogue  to  The  Tempest — are 
in  the  Gower  choruses  in  Pericles  (undoubtedly  not 
by  Shakespeare),  and  in  the  mock  prophecy  in  Lear 

III.  2. 8 1     ft.    (generally    regarded    as    an    interpola- 
tion,   and    in    any    event    a    parody    on    the    familiar 
iambic    verses     known     as  "    Chaucer's     Prophecy "). 
Many     iambic    lines    occur   in    the    Duke's    speech    in 
Measure  for  Measure,   III.   2.275    ff»»   but   they    are    so 
interwoven  with   trochaic  lines    that  it    is    difficult   to 
determine  the  prevailing  character  of  the  rhythm,  and, 
moreover,   this  is  another   passage  the  authenticity  of 
which  has  been  called  in  question.     The  same  may  be 
said  of  "Apemantus'  Grace"  in  Timon,  I.  2.63  ff.     Not 
once  is  the  iambic  tetrameter  to  be  discovered  in  a  pas- 
sage which  bears  the  unmistakable  impress  of  Shake- 
speare's hand.     Per  contra,   the  trochaic   tetrameter  is 
found  in  Dumain's  love-poem  in  Love's  Labour  s   Lost, 

IV.  3.101-120,  the  songs  of  the  fairies  in  A  Midsummer- 
Nigh?  s  Dream,    the   casket  rimes    in    The  Merchant  of 
Venice,  the  verses  of  Orlando,  Touchstone,  and  Phoebe 
in  As  You  Like  It,  III.  2.93  ff.  and  IV.  3.40  ff.,   Tom  of 
Bedlam's  jingle  in  Lear,  III.  6.69  ff.,  Autolycus's  song 

-in  The   Winter  s   Tale,  IV.  4.220  ff.,  and  the  masque  in 
The  Tempest,  IV.  1.106  ff. 

What  is  more,  the  metre  of  these  speeches  of 
Hecate — dull,  mechanical,  regular,  touched  with  favour 
and  prettiness — is  in  striking  and  almost  amusing  con- 
trast with  the  grotesqueness,  the  freedom,  the  bold 
roughness  of  the  colloquies  and  incantations  of  the 
weird  sisters.  ™* 


RIME  13 

Now  Thomas  Middleton,  whose  connection  (direct 
or  indirect)  with  Macbeth  is  indicated  by  the  interpola- 
tion in  the  text  of  two  songs  from  his  play,  The  Witch, 
was  fond  of  the  iambic  tetrameter.  He  used  it,  for 
example,  in  the  concluding  portion  of  one  of  these  same 
songs,  "Come  away,  come  away,"  sung  by  his  Hecate 
in  III.  3  ;  in  the  Raynulph  choruses  in  The  Mayor  of 
Queensb or ough,  I-  I  ;  II.  I ;  IV.  2  ;  in  The  Widow,  III. 
1.22  ff . ;  A  Chaste  Maid  in  Cheap  side,  IV.  1.162  ff. ;  The 
Phoenix,  V.  i.  3175.;  The  World  Tost  at  Tennis,  second 
song.  And  that  he  was  capable  of  writing  as  smoothly 
and  as  flatly  as  these  Hecate  speeches  is  proved 
by  the  following  passage,1  which,  it  will  be  noticed, 
concludes  with  a  pentameter  couplet  exactly  as  in  Mac- 
beth, III.  5  : 

"  When  Germany  was  overgrown 

With  sons  of  peace  too  thickly  sown, 

Several  guides  were  chosen  then, 

By  destin'd  lots,  to  lead  our  men ; 

And  they  whom  Fortune  here  withstands 

Must  prove  their  fates  in  our  lands. 

On  these  two  captains  fell  the  lot ; 

But  that  which  must  not  be  forgot, 

Was  Roxena's  cunning  grief  ; 

Who  from  her  father,  like  a  thief, 

Hid  her  best  and  truest  tears, 

Which  her  lustful  lover  wears 

In  many  a  stoln  and  wary  kiss, 

Unseen  of  father.     Maids  do  this, 

Yet  highly  scorn  to  be  called  strumpets  too : 

But  what  they  lack  oft,  I'll  be  judg'd  by  you." 

There  are  several  circumstances  which  indicate 
that  Macbeth  as  a  whole  was  not  as  successful  a  stage- 
play  at  first  as  one  might  imagine.  But  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  supernatural  element  made 

1  From  The  Mayor  of  Quecnsborough,  I.  I. 


14  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

an  immediate  hit.  One  reason  for  this,  as  Mr.  Verity 
says,1  is  that  it  gave  opportunity  for  the  introduction 
of  music.  From  the  start,  therefore,  there  was  a  ten- 
dency to  impart  an  operatic  character  to  the  play. 
Incidental  music  has  always  been  an  important  factor  in 
its  presentation.2  This  is  seen  in  the  interpolation  of 
the  songs,  "  Come  away,  come  away,"  and  "Black 
Spirits."  And  it  is  more  than  likely  that  it  is  to  be 
seen  also  in  these  lyrical  or  recitative  passages  of  Hecate 
and  the  First  Witch.  Middleton  wrote  for  the  King's 
Players  (Shakespeare's  old  company)  from  1615  to  1624. 
Plays  were  constantly  being  worked  over  by  new  hands 
for  fresh  presentation.  It  surely  does  not  take  a  bold 
flight  of  fancy  to  imagine  that  the  manager  and  actors 
desired  some  alteration  in  Macbeth  to  please  the  ground- 
lings, and  called  upon  Middleton  to  tinker  with  the 
work  of  the  master-dramatist;  and  that  Middleton 
thereupon  introduced  two  songs  and  the  character  of 
Hecate 3  from  The  Witch,  which  he  had  written  under 
the  influence  of  Macbeth.  And  one  is  surely  doing  a 
service  to  the  text  of  Shakespeare  if  one  can  create  a 
presumption  against  the  genuineness  of  these  inferior 
lines. 

Variations  in  the  several  plays  in  the  ratio  between 
the  number  of  lines  of  blank  verse  and  the  number  of 

1  Pitt  Press  Edition,  p.  xxxix. 

2  See  Davenant's  version  (Furness's  Variorum,  p.  303),  Pepys'  interesting 
comment  on  the  "  divertisement"  in  Macbeth,  {Diary,  Jan.  7,  1666-7),  and 
Fleay,  Life  and  Work  of  Shakespeare,  p.  239.     There  was  much  music  in  the 
performance  of  Henry  Irving. 

8  It  must  be  admitted  that  modern  criticism  has  pointed  out  that  the  char- 
acter of  Hecate  in  the  two  plays  is  not  the  same.  The  Hecate  of  Macbeth  is 
the  Queen  of  Hell ;  the  Hecate  of  The  Witch  is  a  mere  common  hag.  But 
this  is  a  subtlety  of  distinction  which  would  not  have  disturbed  Middleton  in 
making  his  additions,  especially  if  he  was  trying  to  write  up  to  Shakespeare's 
level. 


RIME  15 

lines  of  rimed  pentameter  furnished  data  for  the  first 
metrical  test  to  be  applied  to  Shakespeare.  In  1778 
Malone  wrote :  "  It  is  not  *  *  *  merely  the  use  of  rimes, 
*  *  *  but  their  frequency,  that  is  here  urged,  as  a  circum- 
stance which  seems  to  characterize  and  distinguish  our 
poet's  earliest  performances.  *  *  *  [Shakespeare's] 
neglect  of  riming  seems  to  have  been  gradual.  As, 
therefore,  most  of  his  early  productions  are  character- 
ized by  the  multitude  of  similar  terminations  which  they 
exhibit,  whenever  of  two  early  pieces  it  is  doubtful 
which  preceded  the  other,  I  am  disposed  to  believe, 
(other  proofs  being  wanting,)  that  play  in  which  the 
greater  number  of  rimes  is  found,  to  have  been  the  first 
composed."1  A  reference  to  the  Table  will  show  how 
Shakespeare's  usage  changed  in  this  regard.  In  the 
early  comedies  the  amount  of  rime  is  very  large:  in 
Loves  Labour  s  Lost  it  more  than  balances  the  blank 
verse ;  in  The  Comedy  of  Errors  there  is  about  one  rime 
line  to  every  five  of  blank  verse.  By  the  time  of  the 
Romances,  rime  has  all  but  disappeared :  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  speech  of  Time  the  Chorus  in  Winter's 
Tale,  IV.  i,  there  is  not  a  pentameter  couplet  in  the 
play;  and  in  The  Tempest,  with  the  exception  of  the 
masque,  there  occurs  but  one  tag,  II.  1.326,  327. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  from  the  time  when 
Tamberlaine  (1587)  first  caught  the  popular  ear  with 
"  the  spacious  volubility  of  a  drumming  decasyllabon  " 
until  1640,  there  was  "  a  gradual  disuse  of  rime  by  every 
author  "  and  "  a  growing  dislike  on  the  part  of  the  pub- 
lic to  the  mixture  of  rime  and  blank  verse  in  stage 
plays."2  But  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  say  that  the 
number  of  rimes  in  a  drama  will  determine  its  exact 

1  Quoted  in  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  iv  d. 

1  Fleay  in  Ingleby,  p.  64.     But  see  Nicholson  in  T.  N.  S.  S.,  1874,  p.  36. 


1 6  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

position  in  the  order  of  composition.  The  venerability 
of  this  test  seems  to  have  given  it  undue  importance  in 
the  eyes  of  certain  critics.  Mr.  Fleay  thinks  that  it  is 
the  only  one  which  "is  of  use  per  se  for  determining  the 
chronological  arrangement  of  Shakespeare's  works,"1 
but  Mr.  Fleay,  though  an  indefatigable  investigator,  is 
seldom  a  reliable  critic.  The  rime-test  will  indeed  in- 
dicate the  extreme  groups,  but  the  most  casual  glance 
at  the  Table  at  the  end  of  the  essay  shows  that  it  will 
not  decide  the  order  of  the  intermediate  plays.  (Is  one 
to  suppose,  for  instance,  that  Twelfth  Night  was  written 
before  Richard  ///?)  The  reason  for  this  fallibility  may 
be  easily  demonstrated. 

The  operation  of  all  the  verse-tests  is  restricted  by 
certain  rules  which  are  based  on  common  sense.  If 
these  tests  ever  come  in  conflict  with  external  evidence 
as  to  date  or  with  the  best  sort  of  aesthetic  criticism 
(perhaps  they  never  do ;  but  grant  the  supposition), 
then  the  verse-tests  must  give  way.  Again,  one  test 
alone  is  not  to  be  taken  as  determinative,  but  all  are  to 
be  compared  and  their  relative  values  weighed.  Thirdly, 
the  importance  of  a  test  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  delib- 
erateness  with  which  the  author  uses  the  particular 
metrical  peculiarity.2  Those  phenomena  are  least  note- 
worthy which  spring  from  a  direct  purpose,  because 
this  purpose  may  be  assumed  by  the  author  for  special 
reasons  at  any  stage  of  his  career.  Those  phenomena 
are  most  serviceable  which  follow  a  general  subconsci- 
ous change  of  taste  and  habit,  because  such  a  change  is 
least  arbitrary  and  most  irrevocable.  If  this  last  law 
be  applied  to  the  rime-test,  it  is  evident  that  its  conclu- 
sions are  of  little  worth  except  in  setting  apart  the  plays 

1  See  T.  N.  S.  S.,  1874,  p.  7  ;  Ingleby,  pp.  63,  66,  67. 

*  See  Spedding  in  T.  N.  S.  S.,  1874,  pp.  28-29,  Nicholson  in  same,  p.  37. 


RIME  17 

which  belong  in  the  very  first  division.  A  poet  may 
unconsciously  put  down  an  Alexandrine  or  a  weak  end- 
ing or  run  on  one  line  into  the  next;1  these  are  matters, 
not  of  choice  and  purpose,  but  of  general  artistic  ten- 
dency. But  no  man  rimes  unconsciously — except  by 
accident2  at  very  rare  intervals,  or  when  he  does  not 
understand  the  nature  of  rime.3  Thought  is  required 
of  most  men  who  would  write  in  rime,  and  if  a  play- 
wright uses  rime  he  has  an  end  to  be  gained  thereby. 
Down  to  his  latest  plays  Shakespeare,  at  odd  intervals, 
deliberately  employed  rime  for  certain  definite  effects. 
The  presence  or  absence  of  such  a  deliberate  intention 
must  always  be  taken  into  account  in  the  application 
of  the  rime-test. 

Thus  it  would  not  be  right  to  place  A  Midsummer- 
Night's  Dream  before  The  Comedy  of  Errors,  simply  be- 
cause it  contains  a  larger  proportion  of  riming  lines, 
until  it  had  been  first  decided  whether  special  incentives 
to  rime  did  not  exist  in  the  case  of  the  comedy  of  Fairy- 
land ;  and  the  existence  of  such  a  long  riming  sequence 
as  that  put  into  Titania's  mouth  (III.  1.168-177)  proves 
that  rime  here  is  treated  with  the  design  of  producing 
special  effects.4  If,  therefore,  it  is  found  that  the  pro- 
portion of  riming  lines  in  Macbeth  is  far  and  away  above 
that  in  every  play  which  is  generally  supposed  to  be- 
long to  the  same  period  of  authorship,  it  would  not  be 
right  to  assign  it  to  an  earlier  date 5  until  it  has  been 

1  See  Dowden,  Primer,  p.  44. 

J  Macbeth,  II.  3.  59-60,  is,  I  think,  an  accidental  rime.   Cf.  III.  4.99-100. 

8  Cf.  the  rimes  in  the  Aeneid. 

4  See  Dowden,  Primer,  p.  44  ;  also  Nicholson,  T.  N.  S.  S.,  1804,  p.  37, 
who  adds  a  remark  about  the  plays  written  at  the  time  of  the  poems  ;  also 
Konig,  p.   135,  who  thinks  this  the  least  important  of  the  tests  because  the 
emotional  pitch  and  the  occasion  must  always  be  reckoned  with. 

5  As  Fleay  did.     See  Manual,  p.  136. 


1 8  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

considered  whether  there  are  not  special  reasons  for  the 
extraordinary  number  of  heroic  couplets. 

The  number  is  really  extraordinary.  There  are 
108  lines  of  rimed  pentameter  in  Macbeth,  while  Hamlet 
(twice  as  long)  has  only  two-thirds  as  many,  and  Antony 
and  Cleopatra  (twice  as  long)  has  but  one-third.  In 
order,  however,  to  appreciate  the  peculiar  nature  of  the 
difficulty,  it  is  necessary  first  to  examine  the  several 
uses  to  which  Shakespeare  regularly  puts  the  rimed 
heroic. 

The  couplet,  then,  is  called  upon1 — 

(1)  To  mark  an   exit,   that  the  actor  may  not  go 
feebly  off,  and  that  he  may  give  an  easily  remembered 
cue  to  his  successor.    An  instance  of  this  is  the  familiar 

Lay  on,  Macduff ; 
And  damn'd  be  him  that  first  cries,  «  Hold,  enough.'     (V.  8.33  f.) 

Cf.  V.  7.12  f.  Similarly,  it  indicates  the  disappear- 
ance of  a  supernatural  being — which  amounts  to  an 
exit  on  the  stage.  See  IV.  1.71  f.,  79  f.  (also  prophesies). 

(2)  To  round  off  a  speech  of  some  length  with  a 
high-flown  sentiment  or  an  epigrammatic  snap;   e.  g., 
Duncan  ends  his  welcome  to  Macbeth  with  the  words : 

Only  I  have  left  to  say, 
More  is  thy  due,  than  more  than  all  can  pay.     (I.  4.20  f.) 

Cf.  1.5-70  f.;  V.  3.9  f. 

(3)  In  maxims,  proverbs,  old  saws,  and  epigrams ; — 
so  Lady  Macbeth's 

Nought's  had,  all's  spent 
Where  our  desire  is  got  without  content.     (III.  2.4  ff.) 

Cf.  I.  3.146  f.  (also  an  aside);   IV.  3.209  f.;   V.S.sif. 

(4)  In  asides,  "  which  otherwise  the  audience  might 
have  great  difficulty  in  knowing  to  be  asides."2     See 

1  See  Heuser  ivjahrbuch,  XXVIII,  p.  258. 
J  Abbott,  Grammar,  §  515. 


RIME  19 

I.  3.146  f.  (also  a  proverb);   I.  4.48-53;*  V.  3.61  f.  (also 
a  tag).' 

(5)  In  the  prophecies  of  supernatural  beings.     See 
IV.    1.90-93;   cf.   IV.    1.71   f.,    79  f.     Perhaps  also   V. 

3-59*. 

(6)  In  moments  of  passionate  agitation.     See  III. 
4.I35-I40,2  IV.  i. 94-101. 3 

The  purposes  for  which  these  couplets  are  used 
are  by  no  means  extraordinary,  and  parallel  instances 
throughout  could  be  given  from  other  plays.  The  num- 
ber of  the  couplets  is  extraordinary  ;  the  three  long 
rhyming  passages — I.  4.48-53;  III.  4.135-140;  IV. 
1.94-101 — are  especially  remarkable,  and  I  am  strongly 
inclined  to  agree  with  Professor  Manly4  that  the  last 
at  least  contains  several  spurious  lines. 

But  the  most  striking  peculiarity  of  the  pentameter 
rimes  in  this  play  is  the  unusually  large  number  of 
couplets  at  the  end  of  scenes  and  acts.5  Mr.  Fleay 
says,6  "  In  this  play  more  scenes  end  with  tags  than  in 
any  other  play  in  Shakespeare ;  the  number  of  tag- 
rhymes  is  also  greater  than  in  any  other  play,  includ- 
ing his  very  earliest."  Mr.  Fleay  counts,  in  the  twenty- 
eight  scenes  of  Macbeth,  twenty-one  scenes  ending  with 
tags,  and  thirty-three  rimes  in  all.  My  own  reckoning, 

1  Fleay  suspected  this  passage  {Manual,  p.  251). 

a  Apparently  doubted  by  Fleay  (Manual,  p.  256). 

3  This,  with  the  tags,  disposes  of  all  the  pentameter  rimes  in  Macbeth, 
except  III.  5.2  f.f  where  the  couplet  at  the  beginning  of  Hecate's  speech 
counterbalances  the  one  at  the  end  ;  and  II.  3.59  f.,  where  the  rime  is  probably 
accidental.  IV.  1.69  rimes  with  a  line  of  four-stresses,  the  First  Witch  break- 
ing in  upon  Macbeth. 

*p.  153. 

5  Abbott  (§  515)  thinks  this  kind  of  couplet  helped  the  audience  to  under- 
stand that  the  scene  was  finished,  when  the  scenery  was  not  changed,  or  the 
arrangements  were  so  defective  that  the  change  was  not  easily  perceptible. 

8  Manual,  p. 261. 


20  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

based  on  a  more  rigorous  distinction  between  tag-rimes 
and  rimes  used  for  the  other  purposes,  gives  nineteen 
scenes  with  the  end-tag,  and  twenty-eight  rimes;1  but, 
though  the  figures  are  slightly  reduced,  the  conclusions 
remain  practically  unimpaired.  Compare  the  three 
Shakespearean  plays  which  have  as  many  scenes  as 
Macbeth,  or  more.  3  Henry  F/has  twenty-eight  scenes, 
ten  with  tags,  fourteen  rimes;  Antony  and  Cleopatra 
has  forty-two  scenes,  four  with  tags,  six  rimes ;  Corio- 
lanus  has  twenty-nine  scenes,  two  with  tags,  four  rimes. 
Fifteen  is  the  largest  number  of  scenes  which  end  with 
tags  in  any  other  play  of  Shakespeare's,  and  the  play 
which  has  fifteen  is  the  ever-puzzling  Troilus  and  Cres- 
sida. 

The  precise  nature  of  the  singular  rime  problem  in 
Macbeth  now  becomes  evident  and  demands  solution. 
Spedding  suggested  as  a  general  explanation2  that  the 
actors  were  unwilling  to  have  a  scene  end  without  a 
colophon ;  but  this  merely  drives  one  back  to  the  fur- 
ther question,  why  the  actors  developed  such  an  acute 
aversion  for  going  feebly  off  in  1606 — a  question,  of 
course,  beyond  the  possibility  of  answer.  A  more  self- 
sufficient  theory  is  offered  by  the  Clarendon  Press 
Editors3  and  Mr.  Fleay;4  viz.,  that  many  of  the  tags 

1  I.  2.64-67;  I.  5.72  f.  ;  I.  7.81  f.  ;  II.  i. 60  f.,  63  f.  ;  II.  3.151  f,  J  II. 

4.37  f.,  40  f. ;  in.  1. 141  f- ;  in-  2.52-55 ;  m.  4.142  f. ;  in.  5.34  f- ;  iv. 

1.153  f.  ;  IV.  3.239  f.  ;  V.  1.85  f.  ;  V.  2.29  f.;  V.  3.59-62  ;  V.  4.17-20  ; 
V.  5.47-52  ;  V.  6.7-10  ;  V.  8.72-75.  Note  the  extraordinary  number  in  the 
last  act. 

2  T.  &.  S.  S.  1874,  P.  29. 

3  Messrs.  Clark  and  Wright,  Preface,  pp.  ix-xii.    They  suspect  I.  2.64-67  ; 
II.  i. 60  f.;  V.  2.29  f.;  V.  5.47-50  ;  V.  8.72-75.     [16  lines]. 

*  Manual,  pp.  251  ff.  He  adds  to  the  Clarendon  Press  list  I.  4.48-53 
(technically  not  a  scene-tag)  ;  II.  3.151  f.;  II.  4.37  f.,  40  f.;  IV.  1.153  *-',  V. 
3.61  f. ;  V.  4.17-20;  V.  6.9  f.  [22  lines].  Fleay  afterwards  retracted.  See 
his  Introduction  to  Shakespearean  Study,  p.  36. 


RIME  ti 

were  written,  not  by  Shakespeare,  but  by  another,  pre- 
sumably Middleton.  They  are  certainly  bald  and  weak 
enough,  and  their  salient  characteristics  —  unequal 
rhythms,  faulty  rimes,  violent  cacophany,  crowding  of 
consonants,  and  withal  a  certain  "  catchiness" —  are 
Middletonian  symptoms.  Compare  the  following: 
In  Macbeth: — 

(1)  Our  bosom  interest:  go  pronounce  his  present  death, 
And  with  his  former  title  greet  Macbeth. 

I'll  see  it  done. 

What  he  hath  lost,  noble  Macbeth  hath  won.     (I.  2.64-67). 

(2)  Which  now  suits  with  it.     Whiles  I  threat,  he  lives : 

Words  to  the  heat  of  deeds  too  cold  breath  gives.     (II.  1.60,  61). 

(3)  And  still  keep  eyes  upon  her.     So  good  night : 

My  mind  she  hath  mated  and  amazed  my  sight.     (V.  1.85,  86). 

(4)  Each  drop  of  us.     Or  so  much  as  it  needs 

To  dew  the  sovereign  flower  and  drown  the  weeds.     (V.  2.29,  30). 

(5)  That  calls  upon  us,  by  the  grace  of  Grace 
We  will  perform  in  measure,  time  and  place  : 
So  thanks  to  all  at  once  and  to  each  one, 

Whom  we  invite  to  see  us  crown'd  at  Scone.     (V.  8.72-75). 

In  Middleton : 

(1)  "  Come  let's  away: 

Of  all  the  year  this  is  the  sportful'st  day. 

(The  Roaring  Girl,  II.  1.430  f.) 

(2)  Tarry  and  dine  here  all.     Brother,  we've  a  jest, 
As  good  as  yours,  to  furnish  out  a  feast. 

We'll  crown  our  table  with't — Wife,  brag  no  more 
Of  holding  out :  who  most  brags  is  most  whore." 

(/,».,  iv.  2.345  ff.) 

(3)  I'll  take  some  witch's  counsel  for  his  end, 

That  will  be  sur'st :  mischief  is  mischief's  friend." 

(The  Witch,  IV.  1.95  f.) 

(4)  "  Flatters  recovery  now,  the  thing's  so  gross : 

His  disgrace  grieves  me  more  than  a  life's  loss."   (Id.,  V.  1.135  f.) 

(5)  "  The  worst  can  be  but  death,  and  let  it  come  ; 
He  that  lives  joyous,  every  day's  his  doom." 

(Women  Beware  Wemen  I.  2.232  f.) 


22  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

The  theory  of  the  Middletonian  authorship  of  the 
tags  may  be  thus  elaborated :  The  extreme  brevity  of 
Macbeth  and  the  garbled  state  of  the  text  of  some  of  its 
scenes  (notably  I.  2)  suggest  that  the  play,  as  we  have 
it,  is  a  stage  version  reduced  from  the  original  draft. 
Among  other  alterations  the  revising  playwright  may 
have  cut  out  extended  passages  towards  the  ends  of 
various  scenes  and  substituted  rimed  complets  in  their 
place. 

This  hypothesis  gains  some  additional  plausability 
from  an  examination  of  the  peculiar  formations  of  the 
scene-endings.  Instead  of  a  number  of  single  tags,  with 
a  few  scattering  variations,  such  as  we  find  in  the  other 
plays  of  Shakespeare,  we  have  here  almost  every 
variety,  every  peculiarity.  There  are,  in  Macbeth, 
four  single  tags  (in  one  of  which  is  an  Alexandrine), 
four  double  tags  (in  one  of  which  there  is  an  Alexan- 
drine and  a  short  line),  one  triple  tag,  three  single  tags 
followed  by  short  lines,  two  double  tags  followed  by 
short  lines,  two  single  tags  followed  by  full  lines,  one 
single  tag  followed  by  a  full  line  and  a  short  line,  one 
double  tag  with  a  short  line  between  the  two  couplets, 
one  double  tag  with  a  full  line  intervening. 

It  is,  however,  a  precarious  matter  to  lay  one's 
finger  on  a  line  and  say,  ''This  cannot  be  Shake- 
speare's," and  I  would  not  press  too  closely  the  theory 
of  the  Middletonian  tags.  But  whatever  be  the  correct 
explanation — whether  Spedding  is  right,  or  Fleay  is 
right,  or  Wright  is  right,  or  all  of  them  are  wrong  and 
the  true  interpreter  has  not  yet  appeared — the  reader 
can  hardly  help  feeling  that  some  special  and  unusual 
influence  occurred  to  cause  this  freak  in  Macbeth,  and 
that  the  extraordinary  number  of  rimed  lines  does  not 


BLANK  VERSE  23 

indicate  for  it  an  earlier  authorship  than  that  generally 
assigned.1 

The  pretty  arrangements  of  rime-lines — interwoven 
quatrains,  sonnets,  etc. — so  common  in  the  early  plays, 
have  all  disappeared  long  before  Macbeth?  I  should 
prefer  to  consider  1.3.7  ("  Her  husband's  to  Aleppo  gone, 
master  o'  the  Tiger")  as  a  single  doggerel  line,  if  such 
a  thing  may  be,  rather  than  to  force  it  into  a  blank- 
verse  scansion.3  For  doggerel  in  tragedy,  cf.  Lear, 

I.  5-55  f- 

III. 

BLANK  VERSE. 

When  Milton  wrote  in  his  preface  to  Paradise 
Lost  of  "  true  musical  delight,  which  consists  only  in 
apt  numbers,  fit  quantity  of  syllables,  and  the  sense  var- 
iously drawn  out  from  one  verse  into  another,"  he  ex- 
pressed an  empirical  truth  about  the  harmony  of  blank 
verse,  which  it  had  taken  more  than  a  century  to  dem- 
onstrate. It  was  not  a  self-evident  truth  to  Lord 
Surrey,  who  introduced  the  metre  about  1540: — 

"  There  stands  in  sight  an  isle,  hight  Tenedon, 
Rich,  and  of  fame,  while  Priam's  kingdom  stood, 
Now  but  a  bay,  and  road,  unsure  for  ship. 
Hither  them  secretly  the  Greeks  withdrew, 
Shrouding  themselves  under  the  desert  shore. 
And,  weening  we  they  had  been  fled  and  gone, 
And  with  that  wind  had  fet  the  land  of  Greece, 
Troy  discharged  her  long  continued  dole."  4 

1  A  simple  explanation  might  be  developed  along  this  line  : — almost  half  of 
the  tag-rimes  occur  in  the  last  act  ;  in  this  act  there  is  a  crowding  of  action,  of 
army  scenes  and  lively  incidents  ;  the  rimes  bear  out  the  martial  strain  and 
help  to  impart  an  impressive  fulness  to  the  actors'  tones. 

1  See  Fleay  in  Ingleby,  pp.  52,  53. 

8  Mr.  E.  K.  Chambers  tries  to  do  this  (Arden  Edition,  p.  176). 

4  Surrey's  translation  of  the  Aeneid,  II.  29  ff. 


34  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

It  was  not  a  self-evident  truth  to  Norton  and  Sack- 
ville,  or  to  Thomas  Kyd,  or  even  to  Christopher  Mar- 
lowe.    Between  the  woodenness  of  Surrey's  Aeneid  and 
the  extreme  flexibility  of  Macbeth  or  The  Duchess  of  Malfi 
is  a  whole  world  of  change.      As  far   as    this   general 
development  concerns   Shakespeare — and  indeed  he  is 
the  central  figure  in   the  movement — one  may  perhaps 
summarize  it  as  follows:1    Starting  under    a    metrical 
bondage  but  little  less  troublesome  than  that  of  riming, 
he  perfected  himself  first  within  the  limits  of  the  indi- 
vidual line,  until  he  reached  at  last  the  utmost  freedoi 
possible  within  those  limits ;   then  he  set  himself  to  r< 
move  the  limits,  broke  down  the  barrier  at  the  end 
the  line,  and  proceeded  to  compose  less  and  less  wit! 
the  single   verse  as   a  standard,  and  more  and  more  ii 
rhythmical  phrases  of  ever-varying  length  ;  in  Cymbelint 
The  Winter  s  Tale  and  The   Tempest  long  familiarity  lead* 
him  at  times  to  abuse  his  liberty,  and  to  write  measured 
prose    for    verse.      To    put   in    it  still  broader  term; 
Shakespeare's  development  is  a  progress  "  in  the  propei 
adaptation  of  words  and  rhythms  to  the  sense  containec 
in    them,"2    a    progress    from    a    "  declamatory "  to 
"  spontaneous  "  verse-form.3 

A.     STRESS. 

Stress  Modification  of  the  Five-Foot  Line.     A  blanl 
verse  line  is  commonly  defined  as  an  unrimed  line 
five  feet,  each  foot  containing  two  syllables,  and  eve] 
second  syllable  receiving  a  stress  or  accent. 

I  have  |  thee  ndt  |  and  ydt  |  I  sde  |  thee  stfll.4     (II.  1.35.) 

1  See  Corson,  p.  61  ;  Manly,  pp.  xxxiii,  xxxiv. 

2  See  Symonds,  p.  50. 

3  Corson,  p.  61. 

*  Such  regular  lines  are  most  common  where,  as  here,  there  is  an  anti- 
thesis.    (Abbott,  §  453  <z.) 


STRESS  25 

But  this  definition,  like  many  of  the  definitions  of 
our  English  prosody,  is  to  be  taken  somewhat  as  a  con- 
ventionalized norm,  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than 
in  the  observance.  In  the  classical  prosody  there  is  a 
definite  and  unmistakable  distinction  between  a  long 
and  a  short  syllable.  In  the  English,  based  as  it  is  upon 
an  accentual  and  not  a  quantitative  principle,  there  are 
many  shades  of  gradation  between  an  unstressed  and  a 
full-stressed  syllable.1  There  is  no  small  difference  be- 
tween the  accent  on  as  and  the  accent  on  feeling  in  the 
following  line,  and  yet  both  count  as  " stress": 

X  ^ 

To  feel  |  ing  as  |  to  sight  |  or  art  |  thou  but     (II.  1.37.) 

The  modification  of  the  norm-line  by  weak  or  inter- 
mediate stresses  constitutes,  therefore,  one  of  the  eas- 
iest and  most  frequent  safeguards  against  monotony  in 
blank-verse.  A  large  majority  of  lines  (in  Macbeth 
probably  75  per  cent.)  have  less  than  the  whole  number 
of  five  emphatic  accents.2  Out  of  the  thirty-one  lines 
in  Macbeth's  famous  soliloquy  (II.  1.33-64  omitting  41), 
to  my  ear  only  nine  have  five  full  stresses,  while  sixteen 
have  four  stresses,  and  six  have  but  three  stresses. 
Such  results  cannot  be  definitive,  since  different  readers 
(and  the  same  reader  at  different  times)  will  emphasize 
differently.  Nevertheless  they  show  how  preposterous 
is  the  vulgar  notion  that  blank  verse  is  designed  to  tally 

1  Mr.  A.  J.  Ellis  distinguished  nine  grades  of  force  or  stress  :  subweak, 
weak,  superweak,  submean,  mean,  supermean,  substrong,  strong  and  super- 
strong.  {Transactions  of  the  Philological  Society,  June  1876). 

3  Cf.  Abbott  (§  453  a)  "I  should  say  that  rather  less  than  one  of  three 
has  the  full  number  of  five  emphatic  accents.  About  two  out  of  three  have 
four,  and  one  out  of  fifteen  has  three."  Alden  is  more  conservative  (p.  55)  : 
"  It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  in  English  five-stress  iambic  verse,  read  with 
only  the  ordinary  etymological  and  rhetorical  accents  twenty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  verses  lack  the  full  five  stresses  characteristic  of  the  type." 


26  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

the  number  of  fingers  on  the  hand.     A  very  few  lines 
have  indeed  but  two  strong  stresses;1  e.  g., 
This  supernatural  soliciting.     (I.  3.130.) 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  lines  with  more  than 
the  five  primary  accents,  one  foot  bearing  two.  In  some 
such  cases  we  have  a  (l  hovering  accent,"2  where  the 
regular  word-accent  and  the  peculiar  verse-accent  divide 
the  stress  between  them:  the  accent  "hovers"  over 
two  syllables;  e.  g., 

As  she  is  troubled  with  thick-coming  fancies  .3  (V.  3.38), 
The  result  is  a  close  analogy  to  the  classic  spondee. 
In  other  cases,  besides  the  five  primary  accents,  a  sec- 
ondary accent  may  be  found  in  one  foot;   e.  g., 

Le'ad  our  |  first  bat  |  tie ;  wdr  |  thy  Macdiiff  |  and  w6   (V.  64) ; 
or  in  two  feet ;   e.  g., 

To  cry'  |  H61d,hx51dJ  |  Great  Gla"  |  mis  wdr  |  thy  Cawdor4  (I.  5.55) ; 

or  even  in  three  feet,  to  offset  the  two-stressed  line  ;    e.g., 
Whdt   hath  |  quench'd    thdm  |  hath    given  |  me    fire.  |  Hark!     Pe'ace. 
(I I.  2.2).; 

If  the  generalizations  of  Conrad  may  be  accepted, 
despite  the  inadequate  basis  on  which  they  rest, 5  there 
are  more  fully  accentuated  lines  in  the  earliest  and  lat- 
est dramas  than  in  the  central  plays  of  Shakespeare's 
career,  more  in  The  Comedy  of  Errors  and  Macbeth  than 
in  The  Merchant  of  Venice  and  Henry  V.  He  gives  a 

1  Tennyson  to  the  contrary.     See  the  Memoir  by  his  son,  vol.  II.,  p.  14  : 
"  In  a  blank  verse  you  can  have  from  three  up  to  eight  beats."     Mr.  E.  K. 
Chambers  shares  this  opinion.     (Arden   Edition,  p.  174).     But  see  Conrad  in 
Jahrbuch  XXXI,  p.  331. 

2  See  Gummere,  Handbook  of  Poetics,  p.  142. 

8  For  other  examples  of  hovering  accent,  see  II.  3.150;  IV.  3.28;  IV. 
3.196  ;  V.  2.18  ;  V.  3.27. 

4  For  other  examples  of  seven-stress  lines,  see  II.  2.1,39. 

5  See  Jahrbuch  XXXI,  p.  332.     He  deals  with  but  four  plays,  and  with  only 
a  thousand  lines  in  each. 


ST££SS  27 

plausible  explanation  of  this  interesting  circumstance  by 
saying  that  in  Errors  the  poet  was  endeavoring,  after 
the  poetic  fashion  of  the  day,  to  make  his  lines  as  regu- 
lar as  possible  (therefore,  with  five  accents);  in  the 
middle  periods  his  allegiance  to  the  law  of  regularity 
was  shaken;  and  in  Macbeth  and  the  later  plays  the 
heavily  stressed  line  returned  with  the  increased  fulness 
of  expression  and  consequent  weight  of  the  rhythm.1 

CONRAD'S  TABLE  OF  STRESSES.  2 


Play 

Lines  with 
2  stresses 

3  or  4 
stresses 

5,  6,  or  7 
stresses 

Comedy  of  Errors  

6 

7C2 

202 

20 

810 

1^6 

Henry  V 

00 

814 

i  ^^ 

Macbeth  . 

2^ 

734 

216 

Stress  Modification  by  Change  in  Length  of  Line. 
Variations  in  stress  are  produced  also  by  the  addition  of 
a  whole  foot  to  the  line  (resulting  in  an  hexameter  or 
Alexandrine 3),  or  by  the  subtraction  of  one  or  more  feet 
(resulting  in  a  "  short  line  "). 

When  Alexandrines  occur,  the  time-element  has 
generally  been  obscured  by  the  division  of  the  line  be- 
tween different  persons;4  e.  g., 

Mac.     Shall  be  |  the  maws  |  of  kites 

Lady  M.  What,  quite  |  unmanned  |  in  folly?    (III.  4.73.) 

1  For  various  rules  about  the  use  of  stress,  see  Arden  Edition,  p.  174,  and 
Abbott,  §  453a.  They  deserve  little  attention. 

1  Based  on  a  thousand  lines  in  each  play. 

8  Alexandrine  is  the  regular  term  of  art ;  but,  properly  speaking,  an  Alex- 
andrine (as  used  in  French)  is  a  twelve-syllable  line  with  the  pause  after  the 
sixth  syllable.  Not  all  of  the  sixth-stress  lines  in  Shakespeare  have  the  pause 
so  placed  ;  in  some  respects,  therefore,  hexameter  is  the  better  word. 

4  Abbott,  ($500)  and  perhaps  Ellis  (in  Mayor  p.  170)  would  read  such  a 
passage  as  two  short  lines  rather  than  one  long  line,  and  call  it  a  "  trimeter 
couplet." 


28  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

Mr.  E.  K.  Chambers  l  thinks  that  the  extra  foot  is 
possibly  to  be  explained  "  by  the  second  speaker  break- 
ing in  on  the  first,  so  that  one  or  two  syllables  are  pro- 
nounced  simultaneously."     But  it  is  not  likely  that  a 
dramatic  poet  could  hear  the  two  sounds  simultaneously 
while  composing.     Once  in  a  while  the  Alexandrine  is 
parceled  among  three  speeches;   e.  g., 
Lady  M.     For  a  |  few  words.  | 
Serv.  Madam,2  |  I  will.  | 

Lady  M.  Nought's  had,  |  all's  spent,  etc.     (III.  2.4.) 

On  the  infrequent  occasions  when  an  Alexandrine 
occurs  in  the  course  of  a  single  speech,  there  is  gener- 
ally such  a  break  in  the  middle  of  the  line  as  to  make 
practically  two  speeches  instead  of  one.3     Thus: 
Mac.  Give  to  the  edge  o'  the  sword 

His  wife,  his  babes,  and  all  unfortunate  souls 
That  trace  |  him  in  |  his  line.  ||  No  boas  |  ting  like  j  a  fool. 

(IV.  1.153.) 
Or  thus : 

Macd.     I  am  not  treacherous. 
Mai.  But  Macbeth  is. 

A  good  and  virtuous  nature  may  recoil 

In  an  |  imper  |  ial  charge.  ||  But  I  |  shall  crave  |  your  pardon. 

(IV.  3.20.) 
When  the  sense  of  rhythm  is  not  disturbed  in  one 

of  these  ways,  Alexandrines  are  comparatively  rare. 
As  a  rule  investigators  of  metre  have  shown  themselves 
inconsistent  and  perplexing  in  their  handling  of  this 
irregularity.4  Some,  like  Abbott,  would  put  every 

1  Arden  Edition,  p.  174. 

2  The  extra  foot  is  often  a  title  of  address,  like  madam  or  sirrah,  or  my 
liege,  or  my  lord.     It  is  hard  to  tell  whether  one  should  not  count  the  title  as 
altogether  extra-metrical. 

8  See  Arden  Edition,  p.  174. 

4  Thus  Ellis's  inconsistency  is  pointed  out  by  Wagner  in  Anglia  XIII., 
p.  356.  Many  of  the  examples  which  Mayor  gives  (pp.  161,  162)  are  open  to 
a  similar  charge.  As  for  Fleay,  out  of  the  fifty-six  cases  he  counts  in  Winter's 
Talt  (Ingleby,  p.  90)  I  can  agree  to  only  seventeen. 


STRESS  29 

apparent  Alexandrine  into  the  Procrustean  bed  and  short- 
en it  by  drastic  measures.  This  is  to  rob  Shakespeare  of 
one  of  the  means  by  which  he  imparted  variety.  Others 
greatly  exaggerate  the  number  of  instances,  because 
they  fail  to  consider  trisyllabic  feet  and  feminine  sylla- 
bles. I  find  at  most  twenty-five  Alexandrines  in  Mac- 
fieth;  viz.,  I.  2.37  [Here  the  text  is  probably  corrupt]1; 
I.  2.58,  64;  I.  3.111;  II.  3.58,  88;  III.  1.45,46  [which 
I  believe  should  be  considered  one  line];  III.  1.139; 
III.2.4,i6;  III.3.H;  111.4.73;  111.6.14,30,39,49; 
IV.  2.30;  IV.  3.8,  20,  97;  V.  3.5,  37;  V.  5.16,  17 
[which  I  believe  should  be  considered  one  line].2 

As  to  Shakespeare's  general  usage,  it  is  probably 
safe  to  accept  Fleay's  conclusions,  cum  grano  sails.  3 
Until  Twelfth  Night,  the  dramatist  seems  to  have  con- 
tented himself  with  a  dozen  or  half-dozen  Alexandrines 
in  each  play ;  with  Measure  for  Measure  the  number 
takes  a  sudden  leap,  (revealing  in  this  case,  as  in  so 
many  others,  the  poet's  growing  impatience  of  metri- 
cal rules),  and  the  frequency  of  Alexandrines  becomes 
a  rough  test  for  plays  of  the  Third  and  Fourth  Periods. 

TABLE    OF   ALEXANDRINES.4 

Love's  Labour's  Lost 4 

Comedy  of  Errors 8 

Merchant  of  Venice 12 

Henry  V 12 

Hamlet         43 

Othello 66 

Lear 60 

Macbeth 28 

Antony  and  Cleopatra 39 

Winter's  Tale 56 

Tempest 15 

1  So  they,  I  think,  belongs  to  the  next  line,  from  which  Doubly  should  be 
omitted. 

2  Compare  Fleay's  list  in  Ingleby,  p.  85. 

3  See  Ingleby,  pp.  83,  88. 

*  This  Table  is  made  from  Fleay's  lists  in  Ingleby,  pp.  71-92.    It  does  not 
agree  in  a  single  total  with  his  first  count  {Manual,  p.  135). 


30  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

Short  Lines,  of  one,  two,  three,  or  four  measures, 
are  much  more  frequent  than  Alexandrines,  and  more 
organically  connected  with  the  verse-structure,  as  de- 
finite reasons  for  their  use  can  frequently  be  detected.1 

(1)  The  defect  in  the  line  is  sometimes  to  be  pieced 
out  by  a  gesture  or  a  bit  of  action ;   e.g., 

As  this  which  now  I  draw.     {Drawing  his  dagger].     (II.  1.41). 
This  is  a  sorry  sight.     {Looking  on  his  hands'].     (II.  2.21). 

Cf.  1.2.41;  III.  3.18;   111.4.4. 

(2)  Sometimes  the  compensating  pause  is  to  be  ac- 
counted   for   by    a   change    in    the    person    addressed. 
Macbeth  says  to  his  Lady  in  the  banquet  scene,  "  What 
man  dare,  I  dare,"  and  then,  turning  to  the  ghost  of 
Banquo,    " Approach     thou    like    the    rugged    Russian 
bear."     (111.4.99).     Cf.  I.  3.126;   1.4.14;   1.7.28. 

(3)  Or  by  a  change  in  thought.     Banquo  answers 
Macbeth's  question,  "  Went  it  not  so?  "  with  "  To  the 
selfsame    tune    and    words,"   and  then,   seeing  the  ap- 
proach of  Ross,  inquires  u  Who's  here?  "  (I.  3.88).     Cf. 
I.  6.6; 2  II.  4.29;    III.2.5I;   IV.  3.28,  44. 

(4)  The  unexpected  gap  may  attract  the  attention, 
and  so  throw  back  upon  the  words  of  the  short  line  an 
unusual   emphasis.       Thus,    when    Macbeth    says    that 
Duncan  purposes  to  go  away  the  next  morning,  Lady 
Macbeth  replies  with  fearful  energy, 

O,  never 
Shall  sun  that  morrow  see.     (I.  5.62). 

Cf.  111.4.20,51;  IV.  3.219;  V.  5.28  [which  falls 
also  under  (8)];  V.  8.16. 

(5)  Accordingly,  the  short  line  is  often  used  instead 
of  a  tag-rime  or  even  after  a  tag,  to  give  an  impressive 

1  See  Jahrbuch  XXXI,  pp.  335,  336  ;  Mayor,  p.  148  ;  Arden  Edition,  p. 
174. 

2  The  text  is  probably  corrupt  here,  and  a  word  has  dropped  out. 


STRESS  31 

ending  to  a  scene;  e.  g.,  I.  4  ends  with  the  words  of 
Duncan,  full  of  dramatic  irony,  "  It  is  a  peerless  kins- 
man." Cf.l.  3.156;  IV.  2.85  [these  three  without  tag]  ; 

I.  5.74,  III.  2.56,  III.  4.144,  V.  2.31,  V.  4.21  [these  five 
after  tag];    IV.  1.156  [after  tag  and  an  unrimed  line]. 

(6)  Or  to  render  the  exit  of  a  character  effective ; 
e.  g.,  the  second  apparition  (IV.  1.81)  says 

For  none  of  woman  born 
Shall  harm  Macbeth.  [Descends.] 

Cf.  II.  1.30;  II.  3-57;  V.  7.23. 

(7)  Short  lines  are  frequent  at  the  end  of  a  speech, 
where  a  well-defined  rhythm-group    comes  to  an  end. 
See  I.   3.61,    85,   103;   I.  4.43;   II.  2.30;1  11.2.72;   II. 
3.25,  54,  in;   III.   1.13,  18;   111.4.6,68;   IV.  2.26,   35, 
43;  IV.   3.17,90,   215;    V.   3.46.      They   appear   occa- 
sionally also  at  the  beginning  of  a  speech,  as  II.  3.86; 

II.  4.33;   III.  2.13;   V.   8.23;   and  in  broken  dialogue, 
as  I.  2.7;    III.  2.26. 

(8)  In  some  cases  of  this  sort  the  termination  of  the 
rhythm-group  and  the  neglect  to  complete  the  line  are 
occasioned  by  the  entrance  of  a  character;  e.  g.,    II. 
2.63;   II.  3-68,  95,    101;   III.  4-8;   IV.    1.76;   IV.  2.64; 

iv.  3.139;  v.  7.4. 

(9)  The  short  line  crops  out,  furthermore,  in  mo- 
ments of  intense  emotion,   when  language  is  naturally 
brief,  broken,  and  explosive.     The  irregular  lines  in  the 
excited  narrative  of  the  battle,  unless  the  text  is  cor- 
rupt, are    perhaps   to    be    explained  by  the  breathless 
haste  of  the  narrators.     See   I.  2.19  [I  prefer  to  take, 
with  the  Folio,    "Like  valour's  minion"  as  the  short 
line];  I.  2.51.      Cf.  II.  3.83,  109;  IV.  3.217. 

1  I  prefer  to  take  "  When  they  did  say  '  God  bless  us  ! '  "  and  "  Consider  it 
not  so  deeply"  as  two  short  lines,  rather  than  as  an  Alexandrine  with  femi- 
nine syllables  before  the  caesura  and  at  the  end. 


32  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

(10)  Speaking  generally,  the  short  lines  denote 
abruptness  and  lack  of  continuity,  and  so  are  common  in 
questions  and  answers,  exclamations, apostrophes,  proper 
names,  summonses,  commands,  etc.  Cf.  I.  2.66;  II.  i.i, 
10,  n ;  II.  2.18,  19,  30;  11.3.75;  1^.4.39;  HI.  1.24, 
29,40;  III.  2.1;  111.3.15;  111.4.13,  15,47;  IV.  1.77, 
78,  143;  IV,  2.80;  V.  3.12,  18,34;  V.  5.30.1 

My  count  of  the  short  lines  in  Macbeth  is  as  follows. 
(It  should  be  compared  with  Fleay's  figures  as  given  in 
the  Table  below).  Total  number  104. 

(1)  One  Stress;   nine  instances:   I.   3.103;    II.  i.io, 
ii ;  II.  2.18,  19;  III.  1.40;  III.  3.15;  III.  4.47;  V.  3.29. 

(2)  Two  Stresses;   thirty  instances :   1.2.19,41,  51, 
66;     I.   4.14;    I.   6.31;     II.    i.i;    II.    3.54,   68,   86,    109, 
I3i2;    11.4.33,39;    111.1.18,24,29;    111.4.13,    15,    20; 
IV.    1.143;   IV.    2.26,   80,    85;    IV.  3.219;   V.  3.34;   V. 
5.30;  V.  7.23;  V.  8.16,  23. 

(3)  Three    Stresses;    fifty-five    instances:    I.   3.61, 
85,  126,  156;   I.  4.43,  58;   I.  5.62,  74;    II.  1.30,  41;   II. 
2.21,  30  (2),  63,  72;  II.  3.57,  75,95,  ioi>  in;  HI.  1.13; 
III.  2.1,  13,  26,  32,    51,  56;    III.  3.18,  21  ;    III.  4.4,  6,  8, 
51,  68,    144;   IV.    1.76,   77,   78,   81,   156;   IV.  2.35,  43, 
64;   IV.  3.17,  28,  90,    139,  215;   V.  2.31;   V.   3.12,  18, 
46;  V.  4.21;  V.  5.28;  V.  7.4. 

(4)  Four  stresses;   ten   instances:    I.   2.7;    i.   3.88; 
I.   6.6;    1.7.28;    II.    1.19;   11.3.83;    11.4.29;    IV.   3.44, 
217;   V.  8.59. 

Shakespeare  developed  a  sudden  fondness  for  these 
irregular  lines  at  the  same  time  that  he  began  to  use  the 
Alexandrine  extensively,  viz.,  at  the  opening  of  his 

1  The  so-called  Amphibious  Section  (See  Abbott,  §  513,  and  Mayor,  p.  146) 
is  to  me  an  Amphibious  Fiction.     No  poet  would  think  of  composing  in  the 
way  it  suggests.     (See  Ellis  in  Mayor,  p.  166). 

2  I  prefer  to  take  "  Look  to  the  Lady  "  as  the  'short  line  in  this  passage 
rather  than  "  Let's  away."     "  Nor  .    .    .  motion"  seems  to  me  certainly  a  line' 


SUBSTITUTION 


33 


Third  Period.1  Alexandrines  and  short  lines  are  but 
particular  applications  of  the  general  remark,  that 
Shakespeare  came  to  compose  in  rhythmical  periods 
rather  than  in  single  lines.  "  If  this  be  true,  it  may  be 
expected  that  he  will  often  end  one  well-defined  rhythm- 
phrase  with  any  of  the  legitimate  endings,  and  begin  the 
next  without  reference  to  the  way  in  which  that  will 
affect  at  the  junction  the  carrying  through  of  a  system 
of  scansion"2  based  on  the  individual  line ;  hence  the 
long  line  and  the  short  line. 

TABLE    OF   SHORT    LINES.3 


Play. 

Per  Cent,  of 
Unrimed 
Verse  Lines. 

Total 

Number. 

i  foot. 

2  feet. 

3  feet. 

4  feet. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost  . 
Comedy  of  Errors  .  . 
Merchant  of  Venice  .  . 
Henry  V  

3.6 
1.4 
2.4 
i  6 

23 
17 
46 
qi 

0 
2 

7 

4. 

12 
II 
16 

12 

II 

4 

20 
II 

O 
0 

3 

A 

Hamlet  

6  -3 

1^8 

2C 

C-7 

66 

14 

Othello 

6  7 

1  71 

oe 

67 

60 

IO 

Lear 

8  A 

IOI 

ie 

•37 

1  20 

IO 

c.7 

07 

4 

2Q 

51 

13 

Antony  and  Cleopatra  . 
Winter's  Tale  .... 
Temoest  . 

5-2 
2.9 

4.8 

143 

58 

70 

II 

4 
q 

35 
14 

20 

71 
26 

42 

26 
14 

!5 

B.     SUBSTITUTION. 

Those  lines  are  now  to  be  considered  in  which  va- 
riety is  secured  by  the  substitution  for  the  regular  iambus 
of  a  trochee,  or  a  monosyllabic  foot,  or  a  trisyllabic  foot. 
A  large  number  of  feet  are  only  apparently  so  "irregular" 
— if  indeed  we  should  ever  apply  that  Johnsonian  word 
to  our  "iambic  licentiate."  Mistakes  in  scansion  are 
apt  to  spring  from  a  failure  to  realize  that  many  words 

1  Compare  forty-two  in  As  You  Like  It  and   fifty-nine  in   Twelfth  Night 
with  108  in  Julius  Caesar  and  107  in  Measure  for  Measure. 

2  Manly,  p.  xxxiv. 

3  This  Table  is  based  on  Fleay's  figures  in  Ingleby.     The  per  cent,  col- 
umn is  my  own. 


34  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

in  Shakespeare's  day  were  not  accented  as  they  are  now 
and  that  many  others  had  not  yet  been  frozen  into  a 
constant  pronunciation.  Thus  we  always  say  perseve'r- 
ance;  Shakespeare  always  perseverance  (see  IV.  3.93). 
Again  our  practice  is  to  say  unfe'lt ;  Shakespeare  accents 
either  unfe'lt  (Richard  III.,  1.  4.80)  or  icnfelt  (Macbeth,  II. 
3. 142).  Cf.  Undone  (I.  5.26),  iinrough(V.  2. 10),  unsure  (V. 
4.19).  Other  instances  in  Macbeth  where  Shakespeare's 
pronunciation  differs  from  ours,  or  where  Shakespeare's 
pronunciation  is  not  consistent,  are  as  follows : 

(1)  I'nsane  (I.  3.84).     This  is  the  only  time  the  word 
occurs  in  Shakespeare. 

(2)  Authorized    (III.    4.66) — probably;     cf.    Lovers 
Complaint,  104,  Sonnets,  xxxv.  6.1 

(3)  Purveyor  (I.  6.22) ;   only  occurrence  of  the  word. 

(4)  Humane  (III.  4.76).     Both  the  modern  words, 
humane  and  human,  are  always  spelled  humane  in  Shake- 
speare.    Modern  humane  is  with  him   always  humane, 
except  perhaps  in  Winter  s  Tale,  III.  2.166. 

(5)  Chdstise  (I.   5.28).      But  chastise  in    Troilus  and 
Cressida,  V.  5.4. 

(6)  Htcate   (III.    5.1,  etc.);    always    dissyllabic    in 
Shakespeare,  except  in  i  Henry  VI.,  III.  2.64.2 

(7)  Dunsinane  (IV ".  1.93);  elsewhere  Dtinsinane  (e.  g., 

V.  4.90 

(8)  Cdnfirmd  (V.   8.41);    so  also  in  Much  Ado,   V. 
4.17;   elsewhere  confirmed. 

(9)  Obscure  (II.   3.64);    but    obscure    in     Venus    and 
Adonis,  237.     Schmidt  frames  the  following  rule :   Dis- 
syllabic oxytonical   adjectives    and  participles  become 
paroxytonical   before    nouns    accented  on  the  first  syl- 
lable.3 

1  See  Browne,  p.  9. 

2  Which  Shakespeare  probably  did  not  write. 

3  See  Appendix  I.  to  Schmidt's  Lexicon,  Vol.  II.,  p.  1413. 


SUBSTITUTION  35 

Somewhat  similiar  cases  are  the  endings,  -ton,  -ius, 
-tous1,  and  the  like,  the  first  vowel  of  which  is  now  always 
slurred,  and  sometimes  blended  with  the  preceding 
consonant  {nation  being  pronounced  nashori),  but  to 
which  Shakespeare  often  gave  full  two-syllable  value, 
especially  at  the  end  of  the  line.  Whether  the  termin- 
ation is  to  have  one  or  two  syllables  must  be  deter- 
mined solely  by  the  ear.  Thus — 

Which  smoked  with  bloody  execution.     (I.  2.18). 
But 

Is  execution  done  on  Cawdor?     Are  not     (I.  4.1). 

It  goes  without  saying  that  in  Shakespeare  as  in 
modern  English  poetry  the  e  of  the  past  tense  or  past 
participle  in  -ed  is  sometimes  sonant  and  sometimes 
mute.  Shakespeare  at  the  beginning  of  his  career  was 
more  likely  to  sound  it  than  at  the  end.2  I  find  in  Macbeth 
but  one3  instance  where  the  e  is  sounded  in  the  past 
tense  (disbursed,  I.  2.61),  and  ten  instances  where  it  is 
sounded  in  the  participle  (drenched,  I.  7.68;  cursed,  II. 
1.8;  heat-oppressed,  II.  1.39;  blessed,  II.  3.97;  trenched 
III.  4.27;  accursed,  IV.  1.134;  constrained,  V.  4.13; 
abhorred,  V.  7.10;  accursed,  V.  8.17;  cursed,  V.  8.55). 

When  an  r  comes  next  to  a  consonant  an  e  sound 
may  be  inserted  between  the  two  letters  (Compare  the 
way  Scotchmen  pronounce  world),  and  this  e  may  be 
treated  as  part  of  a  foot;  e.  g., 

1  Cf.,  also,  sergeant  (I.  2.3). 

2  The  sounding  of  the-^,  also  the  -est  of  the  second  person,  and  \ht-etk  of 
third  person  present  are  made  tests  by  Hertzberg  (Jahrbuch  XIII,  p.  257) 

and  by  Schipper  (II.  i.  p.  295),  Their  observations  on  the  -ed  are  confirmed  by 
Conrad  {Jahrbuch  XXXI,  p.  348).  But  the  figures  are  few  and  the  test  is  un- 
important. 

3  Verbs  the  infinitives  of  which  end  in  d  or  /  are  of  course  not  included  in 
this  count. 


36  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

Let  your  rememb[e]rance  apply  to  Banquo.     (III.  2.30) 
Not  i'  the  wor[e]st  rank  of  manhood  say  't.     (III.  1.103) 
So  also  ent\e\rance  (I.  5.40),  monst\e\rous  (III.  6.8), 
child\i\ren  (IV.   3.177).     An  anomalous  instance,   with 
p  and  an  i  sound,  is  cap\i\tains  (I.  2.34),  which  was  per- 
haps influenced  by  the  French  pronunciation. 

Similarly  long  vowels  or  diphthongs  before  rs  in 
monosyllables,  "  since  they  naturally  allow  the  voice  to 
rest  upon  them,  are  often  so  emphasized  as  to  dispense 
with  an  unaccented  syllable.  .  .  .  Whether  the  word  is 
dissyllabized,  or  merely  requires  a  pause  after  it,  can- 
not in  all  cases  be  determined1."  As  a  rule  I  am  inclined 
to  favour  the  latter  alternative. 

What  should  be  spoken  here,  where  our  fate.     (II.  3.127) 
Cf.  fare2  (IV.  3.111),  fire  (IV.  i.u),  our  (I.  6.30) 

On  the  other  hand,  the  burr  of  the  r  may  obscure 
or  soften  a  neighbouring  vowel  sound,  so  that  it  is 
almost  or  quite  inaudible,  as — 

Cleanse  the  stuff'd  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff.3  (V.  3.44) 
The  same  is  now  and  then  true  of  other  liquids  (cf. 
persnal,  I.  3.91).  In  the  case  of  evils  (IV.  3.57),  devil 
(IV.  3.56,  etc.),  and  devilish  (IV.  3.117),  either  the  v 
drops  out,  as  in  Scotch  "de'il"  and  the  "  dram  of 
eale,"4  or  the  i  is  to  be  slurred.5  Frequently,  also, 
there  are  elisions  in  the  connection  of  pronouns  with  the 
forms  of  be  and  have,  though  here  again  it  is  hard  to  say 
whether  the  syllable  is  actually  dropped,  or  passed 
lightly  over.  See,  e.  g.,  I  have  (I.  4.20),  we  have  (III. 


1  Abbott,  §484. 

2  Perhaps  in  this  case  the  compensating  pause  comes  before  the  word. 

3  See  the  long  list  in  Mayor  (pp.  1 58  ff .).     The  spellings  sprite  and  parlous 
show  the  justness  of  this  slurring. 

*  Abbott,  §466. 
5  Mayor,  p.  159. 


SUBSTITUTION  37 

3.20),  they  have  (II.  1.21),  /  am  (III.  1.108),  we  are  (III. 
1.91),  etc.  God  be  with  you  (III.  1.44)  is  in  fact,  says 
Walker1,  God  fr  wt'  you  ;  sometimes  a  trisyllable,  some- 
times contracted  into  a  dissyllable  ;  —  now  good-bye.  For 
the  rest  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  much  of  the  elision 
and  slurring  over  which  Abbott,  Mayor  and  other  inves- 
tigators wax  enthusiastic  is  imaginary,  —  a  relic  of  Popean 
methods  in  metrical  criticism. 

1  have  not  thought  it  worth  while  to  make  a  count 
of  the  trochees  and  anapaests  in  Macbeth,  because  their 
number  is  so  great  and  their  character  so  variable  that 
precision  would  be  almost  impossible,  and  because  all 
the  practical  results  of  such  a  count  have  been  already 
demonstrated  sufficiently  by  Conrad  (see  Table,  p.  39). 
Trochees  occur  most  frequently  at  the  beginning  of  the 
line,  to  which  they  often  impart  an  incisiveness.  They 
are  common  also  after  the  caesura,  in  the  third  and  four 
feet.  In  the  second  and  fifth  feet  they  are  compara- 
tively rare,  because  two  stresses  coming  together  with- 
out a  pause  make  the  rhythm  awkward.  There  are 
many  cases  where  two  trochees  occur  in  the  same 
line,  and  an  occasional  instance  of  three.  Examples:  — 

(1)  In  the  first  foot  :  — 

Say  to  |  the  king  |  the  know  |  ledge  of  |  the  broil.     (I.  2.6) 

(2)  In  the  second  foot  :  — 

The  eye  |  wfnk  at  |  the  hand;  |  yet  let  |  that  be.     (I.  4.52) 
See,  also,  I.  3.59;   I.  7.30;  III.  1.97;  IV.  2.71,  etc. 

(3)  In  the  third  foot  :  — 

And  his  |  great  love,  |  shdrp  as  |  his  spur,  |  hath  holp  him. 
(I.  6.23) 

See,  also,  I.  2.67;  I.  3.42,  48,  49,  58,  107,  116;  II. 
2.16,  59;  II.  3.118;  II.  4.7;  III.  2.41,  etc.,  etc. 


227. 


38  THE  METRE  OF  MA  CBETH 

(4)  In  the  fourth  foot : — 

And  fan  |  our  peop  |  le  cold.  |  Ndrway  |  himself.     (I.  2.50) 
See,  also,   I.   3.82,  86,  93,    117,  136;    II.  1.32;   II.  4.13; 
III.  1.32;   III.  3.8;  III.  4.2,  54,  93,  109,  etc.,  etc. 

(5)  In  the  fifth  foot : — 

You  know  |  not  how  |  to  do  |  it.     Well,  |  say,  sir.     (V.  5.32) 
See,  also,  IV.  2.4;   V.  8.50,  etc. 

(6)  In  the  first  and  third  feet : — 

Cannot  |  be  ill;  |  cdnnot  |  be  good  :     if  ill.     (I.  3.131) 
See,  also,  IV.  1.151;   V.  3.49,  etc. 

(7)  In  the  first  and  fourth  feet : — 

Ring  the  |  alar  |  um-bell.  |  Murder  |  and  treason.     (II.  3.79) 
See,  also,   1.4.25;   II.  3.124,  149;    III.  I.2O1;  111.4.49; 
III.  6.18,  29,  34,  etc. 

(8)  In  the  first  and  fifth  feet : — 

Sa"y,  if  |  thou'dst  ra  |  ther  hear  |  it  from  |  our  mouths.     (IV.  1.62) 

(9)  In  the  third  and  fourth  feet : — 

No  less  I  to  have  |  ddne  so:  |  Idt  me  |  infold  thee.     (I.  4.31) 

(10)  In  the  fourth  and  fifth  feet : — 

But  in  |  it  shares  |  some  woe,  |  though  the  |  mdinpart.    (IV.  3.198) 

See,  also,  IV.  3.18. 

(i  i)  In  the  first,  second,  and  third  feet : — 

Ay',  and  |  smcetoo,  |  murders  |  have  been  |  perform'd.   (111.4.77) 

See,  also,  V.  6.4. 

(12)  In  the  second,  fourth,  and  fifth  feet : — 

What  a  haste  |  Idoks  through  |  his   eyes!  |  S6   should  |  he*   look. 

(i.  2.46). 

Trisyllabic  feet,  or  anapaests,  are  not  at  all  unusual, 
and  are  generally  felt  to  add  speed  to  the  rhythm. 

In  my  |  volup  |  tuousness :  |  your  wives,  |  your  daughters.     (IV. 
3.61) 

All  con  |  tinent  |  impe  |  diments  would  |  o'erbear.     (IV.  3.64) 

1  Read  as  one  line  with  19. 


SUBSTITUTION 


39 


What  a  haste  |  looks  through  |  his  eyes!  |  So  should  |  he  look. 
I.  2.46) 

That  look  |  not  like  |  the  inha  |  bitants  |  o'  the  earth.     (I.  3.41) 

Monosyllabic  feet  are  comparatively  rare,  appear- 
ing only  when  the  stress  upon  the  single  syllable  is  very 
heavy,  or  the  quantity  of  the  syllable  is  very  long,  or  a 
pause  makes  up  for  the  omission  of  the  light  syllable. 
"  Initial  truncation  "  (i.  e.  the  dropping  of  the  first  light 
syllable  of  the  line,)  so  common  in  other  English  iambic 
rhythms,  is  especially  rare  in  Shakespearean  blank  verse. 
I  think  that  I  detect  an  instance  of  it  in  I.  2.45. 

Who     comes  here  ?  |  The  wor  |  thy  thane  |  of  Ross.1 

Other  examples  of  monosyllabic  feet  are  I.  2.5 
(fourth  foot),  I.  4.35  (fourth  foot),  I.  5.41  (fourth  foot), 
I.  5.58  (fifth  foot),  II.  1.51  (third  foot),  III.  4. 133  (third 
foot),  III.  6.14  (fourth  foot),  IV.  1.22  (third  foot). 

As  Shakespeare's  verse  grows  freer  and  bolder, 
more  in  harmony  with  the  thought  and  the  emotion,  it 
is  only  to  be  expected  that  these  irregular  feet  should 
become  more  and  more  frequent  with  him. 

TABLE    OF   SUBSTITUTIONS.2 


Play 

Trochees 

Anapaests 

Monosyllabic 
feet 

Total 

Comedy  of  Errors     

260 

I 

2 

267 

Merchant  of  Venice      

21  C 

2 

o 

21  7 

Henry  V     

26l 

I 

266 

Macbeth  

309 

II 

6 

326 

Conrad's  special  Table  of  Trochees  presents  some 
interesting  matter: — 


Play 

Total 

At  Beginning 

After  Caesura 

2  in  a  line 

3  in  a  line 

Comedy  of  Errors  . 
Merchant  of  Venice 
Henry  V  

260 
215 
26l 

309 

I85 
135 
164 
149 

32 
44 
61 
1  02 

12 

15 
24 
29 

0 
O 
O 

5 

Macbeth  

1  So  Verity  (p.  271).     Cf.  Measure  for  Measure,  V.  1.315,  Richard  II. 
I.  1.20. 

2  From   Conrad's  Tables,  in  Jahrbuch  XXXI,  pp.  350-352,    which   are 
based  upon  a  thousand  lines  in  each  play. 


40  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

In  the  trochees  at  the  beginning  of  the  line,  he 
says,  we  have  the  striking  phenomenon  that  Henry  V. 
as  well  as  Macbeth  falls  behind  Errors,  a  fact  which  is 
best  explained  by  the  increased  overflowing  of  the 
verses ;  the  enjambement  would  be  obscured  if  a  stressed 
end-syllable  of  one  line  were  followed  by  a  first  syllable 
of  the  next  also  accented.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
trochees  after  the  caesura  form  a  steadily  rising  column 
in  the  four  plays,  which  shows  that  in  the  later  dramas 
the  caesura  becomes  more  and  more  the  principal  pause. 
If  you  omit  the  trochees  which  are  least  felt  (i.  e.,  those 
at  the  beginning),  you  have  this  steady  progression: 
Errors,  75;  Mer.  of  Ven.,  80;  Henry  V.,  97;  Macbeth, 
160.  What  was  not  clear  in  the  sum  total  of  the 
trochees  we  recognize  clearly  here,  viz.,  that  the  use  of 
the  trochee  as  a  rhythmical  counterstroke  grew  with 
the  years;  that,  therefore,  with  the  trochees,  too,  the 
same  evidence  is  before  us  as  with  the  anapaests  and 
the  monosyllabic  feet. 

C.     FEMININE   SYLLABLES. 

However  the  poet  might  diversify  the  internal 
structure  ol  the  line,  there  was  always  a  strongly  stress- 
ed end-syllable,  against  which  he  must  come  with  a 
jolt  every  minute.  The  ring  of  that  end-syllable  in  his 
mind  (long  associated  with  the  enforcement  of  rime) 
was  a  constant  temptation  to  "  bumbast  out"  the  blank 
verse  with  unnecessary  phrases,  repetitions  and  plays 
on  words.1  We  must  now  consider  by  what  devices 
Shakespeare  overcame  this  champion  of  dulness,  this 
chief  foe  of  liberty  and  variety. 

One  thing  he  did  was  to  add  an  unstressed  syllable 

1  As  in  Richard  III.,  II.  2.71-79,  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  III.  1.196,  197. 
ee  Corson,  p.  54. 


FEMININE  SYLLABLES  41 

^after  the  last  accent,    which   was  thus   modified    by   a 
"  kind  of  grace-note  1,"  e.  g., 

He  hath  a  wisdom  that  doth  guide  his  val(our.2     (III.  1.53.) 
By   an  extension  of  the  peculiarity  we  sometimes 
have  two  such  extra  syllables : 

My  thought,  whose  murder  yet  is  but  fantastical.     (I.  3.139.) 
The  extra  syllable  may  even  appear  at  the  end  of  an 
Alexandrine : 

The  sleepers  of  the  house?  speak,  speak !  O  gentle  la(dy.  (II.  3.88.) 
That  the  comparative  frequency  of  these  "femi- 
nine endings,"  as  they  are  called,  indicates,  in  a  general 
way,  the  date  of  a  play  was  first  pointed  out  by  Charles 
Bathurst  in  his  classic  work  on  Shakespeare's  versifica- 
tion (i857).3  Stating  the  fact  broadly,  if  the  feminine 
endings  are  few  we  may  infer  that  the  play  is  of  early 
composition ;  if  they  are  numerous,  that  the  play  be- 
longs to  the  period  of  mature  authorship. 

Compare  two  typical  passages,  in  each  of  which  a 
woman  scolds  a  man.  The  first  is  from  an  early  play, 
The  Comedy  of  Errors,  II.  2.112-120  : 

1  Dowden,  p.  43. 

2  Abbott  says  (§455)   that  'the  extra  syllable  is  very  rarely  a  monosyl- 
lable, still  more  rarely  an  emphatic  monosyllable.'     Only  the  latter  part  of  this 
statement  is  true.     Unemphatic  monosyllables  are  common  enough  as  feminine 
endings.     Fletcher  will  use  even  an  emphatic  and  important  word  after  the 
final  stress.     See  Symonds,  p.  35. 

3  See  Bathurst,  pp.  3,  147,  149.    Roderick  (See  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  Appendix, 
p.  66)  first  noticed  the  peculiarity  in  his  remarks  on  Henry  VIII.,  which  were 
printed  in   Thomas  Edwards'   Canons  of  Criticism  (1758).     Malone   quoted 
Roderick  (See  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  443),  but  seemed,  poor  man,  to  be  doubtful 
of  the  fact !     S.  Hickson  (in  The  Westminister  and  Foreign  Quarterly  Review, 
No.  xcn,  and  No.  LXXVII.,  for  April  1847;  reprinted  in  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874, 
Appendix,  p.  25),  and  James  Spedding  (in  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  August 
1850  ;  reprinted  in  the  same  volume,  Appendix,  p.  i)  used  this  test  for  separ- 
ating Shakespeare's  and  Fletcher's  parts  in    The    Two  Noble  Kinsmen  and 
Henry  VIII.,  respectively.     This  was  the  first  test  to  be  used  with  arithmeti- 
cal precision  (Spedding,  p.  14),  and  to  be  so  applied  to  all  the  plays  (Hertz- 
berg,  \njahrbuch  XIII,  p.  252). 


42  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

Ay,  ay,  Antipholus,  look  strange  and  frown : 

Some  other  mistress  hath  thy  sweet  aspects ; 

I  am  not  Adriana  nor  thy  wife. 

The  time  was  once  when  thou  unurged  wouldst  vow 

That  never  words  were  music  to  thine  ear, 

That  never  object  pleasing  to  thine  eye, 

That  never  touch  were  welcome  to  thy  hand, 

That  never  meat  sweet-savour'd  in  thy  taste, 

Unless  I  spake,  or  look'd,  or  touch'd,  or  carved  to  thee. 

In  all  the  forty-line  speech  of  Adriana  from  which 
this  is  quoted  there  are  but  two  feminine  endings 
(11.  121,  141).  Compare  with  this  Paulina's  speech  in 
The  Winter  s  Tale,  III.  2.  184-193  :- 

For  all 

Thy  by-gone  fooleries  were  but  spices  of(it. 
That  thou  betray'dst  Polixenes,  'twas  noth(ing ; 
That  did  but  show  thee,  of  a  fool,  inconstant 
And  damnable  ingrateful :  nor  was't  much 
Thou  wouldst  have  poison'd  good  Camillo's  hon(our, 
To  have  him  kill  a  king ;  poor  trespasses, 
More  monstrous  standing  by  :  whereof  I  rec(kon 
The  casting  forth  to  crows  thy  baby-daugh(ter 
To  be  or  none  or  little. 

I  count  in  all  429  feminine  endings  in  Macbeth,  or 
26.  9^  of  the  blank-verse  lines.  The  results  of  Konig 
and  Fleay  are  approximately  the  same.  Of  these  429, 
fourteen  are  triple  endings,  viz,  I.  3.129,  139;  I.  4.26; 
I.  5.49;  II.  1.3  ;  II.  3.114,  120:  II.  4.10;  III,  1.81;  III, 
2.1 1 ;  III.  4.2,  37;  IV.  3.66;  ¥.4.6.  Moreover,  thirty- 
four  of  the  short  lines  end  with  a  feminine  syllable. 

It  will  be  observed  from  the  Table  that  the  feminine 
endings  are  only  an  approximate  chronological  test,  and 
that  the  percentages  do  not  form  a  steadily  rising  col- 
umn. After  1599,  Shakespeare  appears  always  to  have 
employed  at  least  one  feminine  ending  to  every  five 
lines ;  towards  the  conclusion  of  his  career  he  used  as 
many  as  one  in  three ;  and,  beginning  with  Macbeth 


FEMININE  SYLLABLES 


43 


TABLE    OF   FEMININE    ENDINGS.1 


Plays 

Total  (Fleay) 

%  (Konig) 

%  (Fleay) 

%  (Hertzberg) 

Love's  Labour's  Lost 
Comedy  of  Errors  .  . 
Merchant  of  Venice  . 
Henry  V    

26 

178 
325 

•2q6 

7-7 
16.6 

17.7 

20  ^ 

4- 
15-4 
17.4 
17  ^ 

4- 

12. 
IS- 

18  ^7 

Hamlet 

c28 

22  6 

22  A 

oe 

Othello 

670 

28  I 

28  e; 

26 

Lear        ... 

e«o 

28  ^ 

28 

27  ^6 

Macbeth     

42O 

26  ^ 

26  ^ 

oa  /17 

Ant.  and  Cleo.  .    .    . 
Winter's  Tale.  .    .    . 
Tempest  

666 

675 
472 

26.5 
32-9 

35-4 

25.7 
34.7 

34- 

26. 
32.5 
32. 

and  omitting  the  three  plays  of  mixed  authorship, 
Timon,  Pericles  and  Henry  VIII.,  the  increase  of  the 
feminine  endings  does  in  fact  follow  the  precise  order 
of  the  last  six  dramas.2  Before  1599,  however,  the 
plays  exhibit  the  most  surprising  divigations  from  a 
uniform  progression,  the  poet's  unconscious  attitude 
toward  the  end-syllable  seeming  to  alter  with  each  new 
composition.  These  variations  are,  doubtless,  in  many 
instances  to  be  connected  with  variations  in  the  amount 
of  rime.  There  are  comparatively  few  double  rimes  in 
English,  and  so  when  the  dramatic  poet  is  making  fre- 
quent use  of  the  couplet,  his  blank  verse  will  feel  the  in- 
fluence. Many  rimes  imply  few  feminine  endings,  and 
vice  versa  .3 

Feminine  endings  never  became  with  Shakespeare  a 
mere  matter  of  formal  and  deliberate  adoption,  even 
though  in  The  Tempest  and  The  Winter  s  Tale  they  are 

1  In  this   Table  the   first   (or  total)   column  is  from   Fleay's   Tables   in 
Ingleby  ;  the  second  is  from  Konig,  p.  132  ;  the  fourth  from  Jahrbuch  XIII, 
p.  252.     I  take  Konig's  list  of  percentages  to  be  the  most  accurate  ;  note  the 
general  parallelism  between  his  list  and   that  which  I  have  figured  out  from 
Fleay's  totals  (third  column).     See  what  Fleay  says  about  Hertzberg  in  Ing- 
leby, p.  58. 

2  That  is,  if  one  follows  Konig. 

3  Compare   Loves  Labour  s  Lost  and   Midsummer- Nights  Dream   with 
Comedy  of  Errors  and  Richard  III. 


^ 

i  vNivs: 


44  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

almost  the  normal  rhythm.  With  Fletcher,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  are  a  distinguishing  mannerism.1  Through 
page  after  page  he  voluntarily  substitutes  for  the  stan- 
dard decasyllabics  lines  with  one,  two,  and  three  extra 
end-syllables,2  and  so  imparts  to  his  verse  a  languorous, 
luxurious  retardation,  surfeiting  by  its  sweetness,  and 
fatiguing  by  its  monotony.  But  Shakespeare's  versifi- 
cation is  the  least  mannered  of  all  poets ;  it  is  evolved 
from  an  inner  law  ot  harmony  and  is  always  thoroughly 
organic.  When  Shakespeare  used  feminine  endings 
it  was  not  because  he  thought  them  an  adornment, 
but  because  his  "  feeling  instinctively  reached  out  for 
them  " 3  at  moments  when  they  would  give  a  desir- 
able effect.  Consequently  the  feminine  endings  are  un- 
evenly distributed  among  the  scenes  of  the  same  play. 

With  the  aid  of  critical  dicta  supplied  by  Abbott 
and  Mayor4  I  have  determined  in  Macbeth  some  of  the 
peculiar  effects  produced  by  a  multiplication  of  feminine 
endings.  Often,  of  course,  their  influence,  though  felt, 
is  too  vague  to  be  expressed  in  precise  words,  but  at 
times  it  becomes  a  definite  and  definable  quantity. 

(a.)  Lines  are  appropriately  feminine  in  the  polite 
and  graceful  conversation  of  society.  The  place  in 
Macbeth  where  the  feminine  endings  are  most  numerous 
is  the  dialogue  between  Duncan  and  his  hostess  on  the 
arrival  of  the  court  at  Inverness.  (I.  6.10-31.) 
Duncan.  See,  see,  our  honour'd  hostess ! 

The  love  that  follows  us  sometime  is  our  trouble, 
Which  still  we  thank  as  love.     Herein  I  teach  you 
How  you  shall  bid  God  'ild  us  for  your  pains, 
And  thank  us  for  your  trouble. 

1  See  G.  C.  Macaulay,   Francis  Beaumont,   pp.   43,   44  ;  J.  A.  Symonds 

PP-  34ff- 

2  See  Alden,  p.  226. 

3  Corson,  p.  78. 

4  Abbott  in  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  75  ;  Mayor.  175. 


FEMININE  SYLLABLES  45 

Lady  Macbeth.  All  our  service 

In  every  point  twice  done,  and  then  done  double, 
Were  poor  and  single  business  to  contend 
Against  those  honours  deep  and  broad  wherewith 
Your  majesty  loads  our  house  :  for  those  of  old, 
And  the  late  dignities  heap'd  up  to  them, 
We  rest  your  hermits. 

Duncan.  Where's  the  thane  of  Cawdor? 

We  coursed  him  at  the  heels,  and  had  a  purpose 
To  be  his  purveyor :  but  he  rides  well ; 
And  his  great  love,  sharp  as  his  spur,  hath  holp  him 
To  his  home  before  us.     Fair  and  noble  hostess, 
We  are  your  guests  to-night. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Your  servants  ever 

Have  theirs,  themselves,  and  what  is  theirs,  in  compt, 
To  make  their  audit  at  your  highness'  pleasure, 
Still  to  return  -your  own. 

Duncan.  Give  me  your  hand  ; 

Conduct  me  to  mine  host :  we  love  him  highly, 
And  shall  continue  our  graces  towards  him. 
By  your  leave,  hostess. 

Here  in  twenty-two  lines  there  are  fourteen  femi- 
nine endings.  The  straining  after  excessive  courtesy 
voices  itself  in  the  lingering  grace  of  the  feminine 
rhythm.  Perhaps  this  is  the  reason  why  Fletcher, 
preeminently  the  poet  of  society,  is  so  fond  of  it.1 

(b).  In  moments  of  excitement,  when  most  of  the 
rules  are  disregarded,  the  extra  end-syllable  naturally 
makes  its  appearance.  In  the  broken  frenzy  of  Mac- 
beth's  address  to  the  ghost  (III.  4.100-106)  there  are 
three  feminine  endings ;  compare  with  this  the  subdued 
reflectiveness  of  11.  75-82  in  the  same  scene,  where  there 
are  none. 

(c).  On  the  other  hand  the  feminine  ending  is  rare 

1  The  long-drawn-out  effect  of  Fletcher's  lines  is  due  partly  to  the  fact  that 
a  large  per  cent,  of  his  feminine-ending  verses  are  end-stopped.  Contrast  in 
this  respect  Shakespeare's  practice.  (See  Browne,  p.  21.) 


46  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

when  the  conversation  is  familiar,  when  there  is  an  ex- 
tended narrative,  or  when  the  poet  permits  himself  a 
full  flight  of  pure  poetry, — that  is,  when  the  regular 
verse-form  would  readily  flow  from  the  pen.  For  ex- 
amples, see  Lennox's  speech  in  III.  6.1-23,  two  feminine 
endings,  both  proper  names;  Ross's  report  to  Macbeth 
in  I.  3.89-99,  no  feminine  endings.  In  Act  I.,  Scene  2, 
where  the  Sergeant  and  Ross  narrate  the  fortunes  of 
the  fight,  the  feminine  endings  average  less  than  one  in 
five.  There  is  no  precise  counterpart  in  Macbeth  to 
Mercutio's  Queen  Mab  speech  or  Horatio's  "  A  mote  it 
is  to  trouble  the  mind's  eye"  (Hamlet,  1. 1.112  ff.),  the 
instances  cited  by  Mayor  and  Abbott  for  poetic  regu- 
larity. 

(d).  In  soliloquies  that  are  quietly  meditative,  hen- 
decasyllabics  are  infrequent  [cf.,  e.  g.,  Macbeth's  "  sear 
and  yellow  leaf"  soliloquy,  V.  3.20-28,  one  feminine 
ending], but  when  the  throught  is  agitated  or  vehemently 
argumentative,  they  are  prevalent.  This  is  strikingly 
illustrated  by  the  soliloquy  in  I.  7.1-28.  The  first 
eighteen  lines  have  seven  double  endings,  because 
Macbeth  is  in  feverish  debate  with  himself;  then  comes 
the  trumpet-tongued  outburst  of  poetry,  with  the  return 
of  a  feminine  ending  (1.  26),  only  after  Macbeth  has  re- 
turned to  self-examination.  See  also  I.  5.16-31:  the 
first  eleven  lines  express  the  acme  of  excitement,  and  of 
them  six  lines  end  femininely;  the  last  five  develop  a 
single  poetic  idea  and  are  perfectly  regular.  In  II. 
1.33-64,  the  feminine  endings  are  most  rare  in  the  poetic 
passage  beginning  "  Now  o'er  the  one  half- world  " 
(11.  49-60);  in  III.  1.48-72,  they  are  most  rare  in  the 
poetic  passage  beginning  <  *  Then  prophet-like  "  (11.  59-72). 
These  cases  are  enough  to  establish  the  point  beyond 
doubt. 


FEMININE  SYLLABUS  47 

One  rises,  therefore,  from  a  study  of  the  feminine 
endings  with  renewed  reverence  for  the  minute  per- 
fection of  Shakespeare's  art  and  renewed  faith  in  the 
organic  character  of  his  verse.  One  feels  that  he  called 
upon  this  device  with  reason,  for  the  sake  of  dramatic1 
variety,  and  called  upon  it  increasingly  with  the  years, 
as  his  instinct  became  unshackled  and  unerring. 

Corresponding  to  the  feminine  ending,  there  may 
be  one  or  two  light  syllables  added  before  the  cassural 
pause.  These  syllables  might,  of  course,  be  counted 
as  parts  of  trisyllabic  feet,2  but  the  analogy  between  the 
terminal  pause  and  the  internal  pause  of  the  line, 
especially  when  Shakespeare  was  composing,  not  by 
the  single  verse,  but  in  rhythmical  paragraphs,  leads 
one  rather  to  consider  them  as  extra,  or  feminine, 
syllables. 

One  syllable  : 

Wake  Duncan  with  thy  knocking  !  ||  I  would  thou  couldst! 

(II.  2.74.) 

But  mine  own  safeties.   ||  You  may  be  rightly  just.     (IV.  3.30.) 
Two  syllables: 

Contending  'gainst  obed(ience,  ||  as  they  would  make.     (II.  4.17.) 

In  restless  ec(stasy.  ||   Duncan  is  in  his  grave.     (III.  2.22.) 
In  an  Alexandrine : 

Like  syllable  of  dol(our.  ||   What  I  believe,  I'll  wail.     (IV.  3.8. 
Combined  with  feminine  ending: 

The  thane  of  Caw(dor,  ||  began  a  dismal  con(flict.     (I.  2.53) 

The  air  is  dedicate.  ||  See,  see,  our  honour'd  hos(tess!     (I.  6.10) 


1  I  say  "dramatic"  rather  than  "poetic".     Bathurst  (p.  148)  notes  that 
feminine  endings  are  very  rare  in  Cowper  and  Milton ;  Mayor's  Tables  (p.i86) 
show  that  the  same  is  true  for  the  non-dramatic  works  of  Tennyson.     But 
they  are  more  numerous  in  Samson  Agonistes  than  in  Paradise  Losf,  and  in 
Queen  Mary  than  in  Idylls  of  the  King.     (See  Alden,  p.   233).     They  are 
characteristic  of  epic  rather  than  dramatic  blank  verse. 

2  See  the  debate  on  this  point  between  Ellis  and  Mayor,  in  Mayor,  pp. 
153,  168,  178. 


48 


THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 


I  count  in  all  eighty-nine  cases  of  the  feminine 
csesura ;  of  these,  there  are  eight  which  have  two  sylla- 
bles, viz.,  in  addition  to  the  the  three  examples  cited 
above,  III.  1.80,  III.  4.121,  IV.  1.89,  IV.  3. 239^ 
Twenty-eight  lines  have  feminine  syllables  both  at  the 
cassura  and  at  the  end. 

The  comparative  frequency  of  these  mid-line  extra- 
syllables  has  been  made  a  verse-test  by  Fleay,  and  seems 
to  separate  effectively  the  plays  of  the  Second  Period 
from  those  of  the  Third.2 

TABLE    OF    FEMININE    C^SURAL    SYLLABLES. 


Play 

Number  of 
Syllables 

Play 

Number  of 
Syllables 

Play 

Number  of 
Syllables 

1  2O 

60 

Love's  Lab.  Lost 
Com.  of  Errors  . 

O 
0 

Hamlet 
Othello 

78 
208 

Ant.  and  Cleo. 
Winter's  Tale. 

Mer.  of  Ven.  .    . 
Henry  V.    .    .    . 

32 
25 

Lear 
Macbeth  3 

131 

78 

Tempest 

33 

D.     END-STOPPED  AND  RUN-ON  LINES. 

After  all  the  feminine  syllables  do  not  remove  the 
real  difficulty  of  the  troublesome  emphatic  ending  of  the 
line,  because  they  do  not  of  themselves  relieve  the  final 
pause.  Probably  the  most  important  of  all  the  changes 
which  worked  themselves  out  in  Shakespeare's  metrical 
habit  was  the  decrease  of  end-stopped  lines.  A  line  is 
said  to  be  -'end-stopped,"  when  the  voice  naturally 
rests  at  its  conclusion. 

The  presence  of  the  pause  is  not  necessarily  indi- 


1  See  Wagner,  in  Anglia  XIII. ,  p.    357- 

2  Contrast  twenty-two  in  As  You  Like  It,  twenty-eight  in  Twelfth  Night, 
thirty-  five  in  Julius   Caesar,   with  ninety-eight  in  Measure  for  Measure,  and 
208  in  Othello. 

3  One  reason  why  my  count  of  these  syllables  yields  a  larger  result  than 
Fleay's  is  the  fact  that  several  lines  which  he  reckons  Alexandrines  I  analyze 
in  this  manner. 


END-  S  TOPPED  A  ND  R  UN-  ON  LINE  S  49 

cated  by  a  punctuation  mark l ;  it  is  sufficient  for  the 
purpose  that  the  last  word  should  be  dwelt  upon ;  the 
pause  may  be  rhetorical,  rather  than  strictly  grammat- 
ical.2 Thus,  L  3.141  is  an  end-stopped  line: — 

Is  smother'd  in  surmise,  and  nothing  is 
But  what  is  not. 

A  line  is  said  to  be  "  run-on,"  when  the  sense  and 
the  voice  are  carried  forward  without  a  pause  into  the 
line  that  follows. 

The  alteration  in  Shakespeare's  manner  with  regard 
to  enjambement  can  be  best  disclosed  by  the  juxtaposi- 
tion of  passages  from  an  early  and  a  late  play. 
King  John  will  furnish  an  example  of  the  youthful  end- 
stopping:— 

Thou  shalt  be  punish'd  for  thus  frighting  me, 

For  I  am  sick  and  capable  of  fears, 

Oppress'd  with  wrongs  and  therefore  full  of  fears, 

A  widow,  husbandless,  subject  to  fears, 

A  woman,  naturally  born  to  fears  ; 

And  though  thou  now  confess  thou  didst  but  jest, 

With  my  vex'd  spirits  I  cannot  take  a  truce, 

But  they  will  quake  and  tremble  all  this  day. 

What  doest  thou  mean  by  shaking  of  thy  head  ? 

Why  dost  thou  look  so  sadly  on  my  son  ? 

What  means  that  hand  upon  that  breast  of  thine  ? 

Why  holds  thine  eye  that  lamentable  rheum, 

Like  a  proud  river  peering  o'er  his  bounds  ? 

Be  these  sad  signs  confirmers  of  thy  words  ? 

Then  speak  again ;  not  all  thy  former  tale, 

But  this  one  word,  whether  thy  tale  be  true. 

(III.  1.11-26.) 
One  feels  in  reading  lines  like  these  that  the  poet 

1  See  Seccombe  and  Allen,  The  Age  of  Shakespeare,  Vol.  II.,  p.  113. 

2  An  attempt  was  made  by  the  Tests  Committee,  of  the  St.  Petersburg 
Shakespeare  Circle   (Engl.  Stud.  Ill,  p.  473)  to  substitute  a  purely  gramma- 
tical test  for  the  phonetic   one  hitherto  used,  but  the  attempt  was  hardly  suc- 
cessful.    See  Konig's  comments,  p.  109,  footnote. 


50  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

was  saying  not  altogether  what  he  would,  but  what  he 
could.  A  passage  from  Macbeth  will  illustrate  the  gain 
in  rapidity,  variety,  vivacity,  and  ease,  which  accom- 
panied the  increase  of  enjambement. 

Macduff,  this  noble  passion, 
Child  of  integrity,  hath  from  my  soul 
Wiped  the  black  scruples,  reconciled  my  thoughts 
To  thy  good  truth  and  honour.     Devilish  Macbeth 
By  many  of  these  trains  hath  sought  to  win  me 
Into  his  power,  and  modest  wisdom  plucks  me 
From  over-credulous  haste  :  but  God  above 
Deal  between  thee  and  me !  for  even  now 
I  put  myself  to  thy  direction,  and 
Unspeak  mine  own  detraction,  here  abjure 
The  taints  and  blames  I  laid  upon  myself, 
For  strangers  to  my  nature.     I  am  yet 
Unknown  to  woman,  never  was  forsworn, 
Scarcely  have  coveted  what  was  mine  own, 
At  no  time  broke  my  faith,  would  not  betray 
The  devil  to  his  fellow  and  delight 
No  less  in  truth  than  life :  my  first  false  speaking 
Was  this  upon  myself. 

(IV.  3.114-131.) 

It  is  commonly  stated  l  that  the  progression  of  en- 
jambement in  the  several  plays,  indicating  as  it  does  an 
indeliberate  change  of  habit,  and  not,  like  rime,  de- 
pending upon  voluntary  choice,  is  the  most  regularly 
continuous  of  all  the  progressions,  and  that,  therefore, 
the  en/am&ement-test  is  the  most  valuable.  According- 
ly I  expected  to  find  here,  upon  investigation,  chrono- 
logical evidence  nearly,  if  not  perfectly,  conclusive.  I 
was  disappointed.  The  enjambement-test  may,  indeed, 
be  better  fitted  than  the  others  for  general  application 
to  Shakespeare's  whole  career,  but  it  serves  only  to  in- 


1  See  e.  g.,  Dowden,  p.  39;  Furnivall  in    T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  31    (foot- 
note) ;  Ingram,  same  vol.,  p.  455  ;  Bathurst,  p.  2  ;  Konig,  p.  135. 


END- S  TOPPED  AND  R  UN-  ON  LINES  5 1 

dicate  groups,  not  the  order  of  plays  within  the  groups. 
Two  counts  of  the  run-on  lines  have  been  made.  One 
was  accomplished  by  Dr.  Furnivall,  whose  name  is 
identified  with  this  test  because  of  the  prominence  to 
which  he  raised  it1;  but  Furnivall  counted  only  eight 
plays2,  and  committed  the  palpable  mistake  of  including 
rime-lines  in  his  ratios.3  Enjambement  in  the  couplet  is 
a  very  different  thing  from  enjambement  in  blank  verse, 
much  more  difficult  and  infrequent.4  The  other  count, 
made  by  Konig  for  all  the  dramas,  bases  scientific  re- 
sults upon  a  loose  aesthetic  distinction5,  but  I  accept 
his  figures  as  consistent  and  consistency  is  the  main 
point  in  such  matters.  My  own  reckoning  of  the  run- 
on  lines  in  Macbeth  yields  a  total  considerably  less  than 
his,  viz.  470,  or  29.4%  of  the  blank-verse  lines;  but 


1  It  was  first  noticed  by  Malone  (1778),  and  was  worked  out  with  ingenuity 
by  Bathurst  (1857).     See  p.  2  of  his  delightful  little  book,  and  the  remarks  on 
the  several  plays. 

2  Viz.,  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Comedy  of  Errors,   Two   Gentlemen,  Tem- 
pest,  Cymbeline,    Winter's    Tale  (See  Leopold  Shakspere,  p.  xx  ;  Konig,  p. 
133),  Henry    VIII.  (T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  app.,  p.  24)   and    Two  Noble  Kinsmen 
(ib.,  p.  65). 

8  See  Konig,  p.  133  (footnote)  ;  Fleay  in  Ingleby,  p.  60,  Rule  3. 

4  See  Alden,  pp.  184  ff.,  437  ff. 

5  This  distinction  is  drawn  on  p.  log.     It  is  between  the  mild  enjambe- 
ment which  makes  allowance  for  the  verse  in  its  rhythmical  signification,  and 
the    rough    enjambement    whicn  overflows  the   metrical  pause.     Thus,   in   I. 
4.22,  23,— 

The  service  and  the  loyalty  I  owe, 

tin  doing  it,  pays  itself.     Your  highness'  part 
Is  to  receive  our  duties  ; — 

the  first  line  has  the  mild  enjambement,  the  second  has  the  rough.  It  is  only 
the  latter  (generally  corresponding  with  Furnivall's  "run-on  line")  for  which 
Shakespeare  shows  diminishing  aversion,  and  which,  therefore,  is  chronolog- 
ically determinative.  But  Konig  would  include  in  the  latter  class  lines  like 
III.  1.126  and  III.  4.43,  where  the  pauses  after  lord  and  sir  surely  make  the 
lines  end-stopped. 


THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 


my  definition  of  the  term  "  run-on  "  is  more  narrow  and 
rigorous. 

TABLE    OF    RUN-ON    LINES.1 


Play 

Per  Cent,  of  Blank  Verse 

Per  Cent,  of  Verse-Lines 

Love's  Labour's  Lost  
Comedy  of  Errors 

I8.4 

TO     Q 

5-2 

8  e 

Merchant  of  Venice 

A^.y 
21   ^ 

Henry  V       ... 

21   8 

Hamlet     ...            

O-l    T 

Othello      

TQ    C 

Lear  

2Q  "3 

Macbeth   ....        .    . 

36  6 

Antony  and  Cleopatra  
Winter's  Tale  ... 

43-3 

07  c 

q2 

Tempest   

41.5 

24.8 

According  to  Konig's  figures  Shakespeare's  use  of 
the  unstopped  line  took  a  jump  with  Lear  (of  9.8  $,) 
another  with  Macbeth  (of  7.3  $>),  and  still  another  with 
Antony  and  Cleopatra  (of  6.7$).  He  was  rapid- 
ly breaking  away  from  the  confinement  of  end- 
pauses,  because  with  a  large  majority  of  end-stop- 
ped lines  he  could  not  make  narrative  fluent  or  conver- 
sation rapid.  Yet  an  over-abundance  of  run-on  lines 
perhaps  makes  the  phrasing  too  intricate,  the  rhythm 
too  prosaic,  for  very  deep  and  active  tragedy.2  The 
prevalence  of  such  lines  is  one  of  the  distinguishing 

1  The  first  column  is  from  Konig,  p.  133  ;  the  second  is  from  Furnivall 
(Leopold  Shakspere,  p.  xx),  the  figures  having  been  converted  from  ratios  to 
per  cents. 

2  Perhaps  one  ought  to  comment  here  upon  the  fact  that  not  only  does  the 
total  number  of  stopped  lines  fall  off,  but  also  the  use  of  many  of  them  in  suc- 
cession.    KSnig  (p.  105)  cites    Two  Gentlemen,  IV.  4.184-210  (twenty-seven 
lines,  one  enjambement],  King  John,  III.  1.8-39,  and  Julius  Caesar,  I.  2.138- 
158.     Later  such  a  long  chain  of  stopped  lines  is  to  be  found  only  in  Pericles, 
I.  2.1-47  and  Henry  VIII.,  II.  1.55-79,  both  suspected  passages.     Conversely, 
in  the  youthful  dramas  we  have  at  most  five  successive  run-on  lines,  and  that 
in  but  two  instances  (i  Henry  VI,  IV.  4.2-6,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  II.  6.24-28), 
while  in  Macbethwe.  have  two  passages  of  seven  in  succession  (III.  6.42-48,  IV. 
3.1-7)  and  one  of  nine  (IV.  3.115-123),  and  later  plays  have  still  more  extended 
sequences. 


LIGHT  AND  WEAK  ENDINGS  53 

characteristics   of    Shakespeare's    Fourth    Period,    the 
period  of  the 'Romances. 

E.  LIGHT  AND  WEAK  ENDINGS 
The  most  insistent  metrical  reason  for  a  Fourth 
Period,  however,  is  the  sweeping  introduction  in  these 
last  plays  of  weak  monosyllabic  endings.  Indeed,  so 
numerous  and  characteristic  do  they  grow  that  the 
period  may  best  take  its  designation  from  them  as  the 
11  Weak-Ending  Period."  The  word  "weak"  is  gen- 
eric, covering  two  degrees  of  enfeeblement.  On  some 
of  the  final  monosyllables  "the  voice  can  to  a  certain 
small  extent  dwell."1  They  are  therefore  termed  "light" 
endings.  To  this  class  belong  the  pronouns  /,  thou,you, 
he,  she,  we,  and  they,  the  auxiliaries  do,  has,  shall,  may,  can, 
and  the  like,  the  verbal  forms  am,  be,  etc.,  the  relatives 
who,  which,  what,  etc.,  and  a  few  other  words.2  For 
example, — 

If  I  say  sooth,  I  must  report  they  were 

As  cannons  overcharged  with  double  cracks.     (I.  2.36) 

There  are  twenty  other  cases  of  light  endings  in 
Macbeth,  as  follows:  upon*  (I.  4.37),  be  (I.  5.16),  been  (I. 
7.17),  would  (1.  7.50),  upon  (I.  7.69),  upon  (I.  7.70),  but  (II. 
1.37),  been  (III.  1.78),  what  (III.  i.no),  could  (III.  1.118), 
he  (III.  6.38),  might  (III.  6.43),  be  (IV.  1.147),  been  (IV. 
3.67),  may  (IV.  3.70),  be  (IV.  3.73),  such  (IV.  3.77),  been 
IV.  3.86),  should (IV.  3.97),  hath  (IV.  3.189). 

But  the  "weak"  endings  par  excellence  are  those 
which  "  are  so  essentially  proclitic  in  their  character 
(to  use  a  term  applied  by  Hertzberg  in  dealing  with  this 

1  See  Ingram,  in  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  447. 

2  Ingram  counts  fifty-four  light  monosyllables,  to  which  the  Tests  Com- 
ttee  of  the  St.   Petersburg  Shakespeare  Circle  (Engl.    Stud.  III.,  p.  483) 

lid  add  forty. 

3  This  dissyllable  is  added  to  the  list  of  monosyllables. 


54  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

subject)  that  we  are  forced  to  run  them,  in  pronunciation 
no  less  than  in  sense,  into  the  closest  connection  with 
the  opening  words  of   the    succeeding   line"1.     These 
winged  words  embrace  monosyllabic  prepositions  (e.  g., 
at,    by,   for,  from,  in,   of,  on,   to,  with]  and  conjunctions 
(e.  g.,  and,  as,  but,  if,  nor,  or,  than,  that}.'2'     Two  such 
weak  endings  are  commonly  reckoned  in  Macbeth  : 
He  hath  been  in  unusual  pleasure,  and 
Sent  forth  great  largess  to  your  offices.     (II.  1.13.) 

(Here  the  Folio  reads  pleasure,  And  sent  ;   Jennens  made 
the  correction  in  the  lineation.) 

I  put  myself  to  thy  direction,  and 
Unspeak  mine  own  detraction.     (IV.  3.122.) 

It  is  possible,  as  Professor  Parrott  has  pointed  out 
to  me,  that  a  change  similar  to  the  one  made  by  Jen- 
nens should  be  adopted  in  V.  7.22,  where  otherwise  the 
pause  after  bruited  would  have  to  make  up  for  the  omis- 
sion of  a  stressed  and  an  unstressed  syllable.  The 
rhythm  of  both  this  line  and  the  next  is  certainly  im- 
proved if  the  And  is  transferred. 

Seems  bruited.    Let  me  find  him,  fortune !  and 
More  I  beg  not. 
Professor  Ingram3  distinguished  the  two  groups  in 

1  Ingram,  p.  447  ;  also  Jahrbuch  XIII.,  p.  253. 

2  The  St.  Petersburg  Committee  (p.  484)  try  again  to  substitute  a  purely 
grammatical  test,  and  to  make  up  a  complete  list  of  all  possible  weak  endings. 
They  add  to  Ingram'slist  (See  p.  561)  both,  down,  else,  are,  hence,  lest,  like,  near, 
next,   nigh,  off,   out,  round,  save,  since,  sith,  so,  still,  thence,  through,  whilst, 
while,  up,  yet.     On  the  whole  they  have  failed  again,  because  their  rules  lead 
to  a  total  disregard  of  the  important  element  of  quantity.     (See  Konig,  p.  100, 
footnote,  and  Schipper,  II.  i.,  p.  291.)     This  criticism  applies  also  to  their  ad- 
ditional list  of  light  endings.     Some  of  their  points  (e.  g.,  4  and  8  on  p.  485) 
seem  well  taken. 

3  To  whom  we  owe  the  final  elaboration  of  the  test.     The  weak  endings 
were  first  noticed  as  a  mark  of  the  later  plays  by  Bathurst  (p.  3  ;  also  p.  104). 
The  two  degrees  were  discriminated  by  Craik   (p.  39),  who  also  excellently  de- 
scribed their  effect  on  the  verse  (pp.  36,  37).     Spedding  first  insisted  upon  the 
necessity  of  counting  the  weak  endings.     (  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  31.) 


LIGHT  AND  WEAK  ENDINGS 


55 


this  way:  he  looked  through  Milton's  two  epics  and 
Wordsworth's  Excursion  to  see  what  words  of  this 
general  character  they  allowed  at  the  ends  of  their 
lines.  Such  he  made  the  "light"  endings,  because  he 
knew  that  the  grave  non-dramatic  verse  of  these  poets 
would  never  approach  "the  extreme  of  the  proclitic 
structure". 

With  the  introduction  of  weak  endings  the  death 
blow  is  dealt  to  the  emphatic  close  of  the  line.  The 
force  of  freedom  could  no  further  go. 

TABLE    OF   LIGHT   AND    WEAK    ENDINGS.1 


Plays 

Number  of 
Light 

Number  of 
Weak 

Per  Cent,  of 
Light 

Per  Cent,  of 
Weak 

Per  Cent. 
Both  of 

Love's  Labour's  Lost 
Comedy  of  Errors  .    . 
Merchant  of  Venice  . 
Henry  V      .... 

3 

0 

f\ 

o 

O 
I 

o 

.48 
.00 
•32 
.IO 

.OO 
.OO 
•  05 
.OO 

.48 
.00 

•37 
.IO 

Hamlet  .  .  . 

8 

o 

.34 

.OO 

.qi 

Othello  

2 

o 

.08 

.OO 

.08 

Lear  

c 

I 

.24 

.04 

.28 

21 

2 

1.30 

.12 

1.42 

Ant.  and  Cleo.  .  .  . 
Winter's  Tale  .... 
Tempest  

71 

57 
42 

28 

43 
25 

2.74 
2.92 
3.00 

1.  08 
2.21 

1.79 

3.82 
5-13 

4-79 

For  somewhere  about  three-fourths  of  Shakespeare's 
dramatic  career  there  are  very  few  light  endings,  and 
only  a  trace  of  weak  endings.  They  furnish  no 
chronological  hints  until  we  come  to  about  the  year 
1606,  but  they  are  a, "very  sensitive  indicator  of  Shake- 
speare's latest  manner".2  A  wide  gap  separates  the 
light  endings  of  Macbeth  from  those  of  all  previous  plays 

1  From  Ingram's  Table  (  T.  N.  S.  S.  1874,  p.  450).  The  percentages  will 
be  found  to  differ  slightly  from  Ingram's  because  he  counted  in  the  pentameter 
rimed  lines  (See  p.  449),  as  well  as  blank  verse,  thus  confusing  two  tests. 
14  Rimes  and  weak  endings  are  incompatible,"  emphatic  syllables  being  neces- 
sary in  the  riming  words.  (Fleay  in  Ingleby,  p.  60,  Rule  3). 

2  So  Ingram,  p.  455.  But  I  cannot  agree  with  Dowden  (Primer,  p.  41) 
that  within  the  last  period  this  test  ' '  serves  to  indicate  nearly  the  precise  order 
in  which  the  plays  were  written." 


56  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

(twenty-one  as  against  eleven  in  All's  Well,  the  highest 
figure  preceding).  Macbeth  thus  prepares  the  way  for 
the  Weak-Ending  Period,  and  was,  in  all  probability, 
the  last  play  written  before  it.  With  this  mild  fore- 
warning, the  poet  seems  to  have  thrown  himself  at  once, 
and  whole-heartedly,  into  the  practice  of  light  and  weak 
endings.  Twenty-eight  of  the  latter  appear  in  Antony 
and  Cleopatra,  forty-four  in  Coriolanus,  fifty-two  in 
Cymbeline,  while  the  light  endings  leap  to  seventv-one 
in  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  sixty  \\\*  Coriolanus,  seventy- 
eight  in  Cymbeline.  No  play  before  Macbeth  shows 
more  than  two  weak  endings.  This,  I  take  it,  is  by  all 
odds  the  most  important  piece  of  metrical  testimony  in 
regard  to  the  date  of  Macbeth.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
comparatively  large  number  of  light  endings  indicates 
emphatically  that  the  play  was  written  after  Hamlet, 
Othello,  and  Lear.  On  the  other  hand,  the  theory  of  a 
late  date  for  Macbeth  (about  1610)  is  conclusively  con- 
troverted by  the  absolutely  small  number  of  weak 
endings  and  the  relatively  small  number  of  light  endings, 
as  compared  with  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Coriolanus, 
Cymbeline,  The  Winter  s  Tale,  and  fhe  Tempest.  These 
metrical  statistics  alone,  unaided  by  the  evidence  of 
style,  Shakespeare's  dramatic  mood,  etc.,  are  enough  to 
prove  that  Macbeth  cannot  belong,  jfi* the  same  period  as 
the  Romances.1 

Commonly  a  pause  occurs  either  shortly  or  imme- 
diately before  the  final  monosyllable,  in  these  light 
and  weak  endings,  after  which  the  verse  darts  ahead. 


1  See  Verity,  pp.  x,  xi.  In  the  case  of  light  and  weak  endings,  as  in  con- 
nection with  ordinary  run-on  lines,  one  should  note  the  use  of  the  peculiarity 
in  successive  lines.  Before  Macbeth  occurrences  are  always  solitary.  But  upon 
comes  at  the  end  of  11.  69  and  70  in  I.  7,  and  instances  of  two  and  three  in  suc- 
cession begin  to  be  frequent  in  Antony  and  Cleopatra.  See  Konig,  pp.  106-108. 


SPEECH  ENDINGS 


57 


But  fear  not  yet 

To  take  upon  you  what  is  yours  :  ||  you  may 
Convey  your  pleasures  in  a  spacious  plenty.  (IV.  3.70). 
The  latter  part  of  a  line,  if  it  is  to  be  bound  into 
a  rhythmical  unit  with  the  next,  must  not  be  too  long; 
and  so  an  increase  in  the  number  of  enjambements  is 
accompanied  by  a  shoving  back  of  the  caesura  toward 
the  end  of  the  line.  This  structure,  as  Craik1  has  well 
said,  conduces  to  variety  and  liveliness,  and  is  better 
fitted  for  the  sprightly,  varicoloured  portrayal  of  life 
which  we  have  in  the  Romances  than  for  the  massy 
weight  of  the  great  tragedies.  The  '  'manner  of  its 
gait"  is  like  Diomed's: — 

He  rises  on  the  toe  :  that  spirit  of  his 
In  aspiration  lifts  him  from  the  earth. 

(Troilus  and  Cressida,  IV.  5.15,  16) 

TABLE    OF   CAESURAS.2 


Play 

After  ist,  2nd,  or  3rd 
Syllable 

Regular  Place 
After  4th,  or  5th 
Syllable 

After  6th,  7th,  8th,  or 
9th  Syllable 

Comedy  of  Errors.  .  . 
Merchant  of  Venice  . 
Henry  V  

150 
I09 
IAI 

526 
520 
d66 

2Q5 

339 

•7-3^1 

Macbeth  

56 

38o 

527 

F.     SPEECH  ENDINGS. 

The  last  test  to  be  considered  is  the  Speech-End- 
ing Test.3  It  is  really  a  corollary  or  buttress  of  the 
enjambement-test.  As  Shakespeare  composed  less  and 
less  within  the  bounds  of  the  single  line,  and  more  and 
more  in  rhythmical  phrases,  and  as  these  phrases  came 
to  a  conclusion  at  the  caesura,  and  not  at  the  end  of  the 


1  P.  36. 

2  From  Conrad's  Table  in  Jahrbuch  XXXI.,  p.  347,  based  on  a  thousand 


lines  in  each  play. 

8  Proposed  by  Ingram,  worked  out  for  twenty  plays  by  Prof.  Pulling 
N.  S.  S.  1877-1879,  p.  457),  and  for  all  the  dramas  by  Kdnig  (p.  134). 


T. 


5  8  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

verse,  so  also  the  speeches  of  the  characters  ended  in- 
creasingly within  the  line.  The  broken  structure  re- 
moves from  the  dialogue  much  of  that  air  of  artificiality 
which  attaches  to  the  poetic  drama.  This  is  well  illus- 
trated by  Act  V.,  Scene  4: — 

Malcolm.         Cousins,  I  hope  the  days  are  near  at  hand 

That  chambers  will  be  safe. 

MenUith.  We  doubt  it  nothing. 

Siward.  What  wood  is  this  before  us  ? 

Menteith.  The  wood  of  Birnam. 

Malcolm.         Let  every  soldier  hew  him  down  a  bough 

And  bear  't  before  him  :  thereby  shall  we  shadow 

The  numbers  of  our  host,  and  make  discovery 

Err  in  report  of  us  ? 

Soldiers.  It  shall  be  done. 

Siward.  We  learn  no  other  but  the  confident  tyrant 

Keeps  still  in  Dunsinane,  and  will  endure 

Our  setting  down  before  't. 
Malcolm.  'Tis  his  main  hope : 

For  where  there  is  advantage  to  be  given, 

Both  more  and  less  have  given  him  the  revolt, 

And  none  serve  with  him  but  constrained  things 

Whose  hearts  are  absent  too. 
Macduff.  Let  our  just  censures 

Attend  the  true  event,  and  put  we  on 

Industrious  soldiership. 
Siward.  The  time  approaches 

That  will  with  due  decision  make  us  know 

What  we  shall  say  we  have  and  what  we  owe. 

Thoughts  speculative  their  unsure  hopes  relate, 

But  certain  issue  strokes  must  arbitrate : 

Towards  which  advance  the  war. 

The  speech-ending  test,  though  interesting  and 
suggestive,  is  of  comparatively  little  importance  as 
strict  evidence,  because  the  materials  are  inadequate.1 

1  That  is  to  say,  the  total  number  of  speech  endings  is  not  great  enough 
for  small  differences  in  percentages  in  the  several  plays  to  indicate  anything  in 
regard  to  order  of  composition.  See  Konig,  p.  134. 


SPEECH  ENDINGS 


59 


As  far  as  it  goes,  it  seems  to  place  Macbeth  nearer  to 
Antony  and  Cleopatra  than  to  Lear. 

TABLE    OF   SPEECH    ENDINGS.1 


Play 

Per  Cent,  of  Blank 
Verse  Speeches 
Ending  in  Middle 
of  Line 

Per  Cent,  of  Verse 
Speeches  Ending 
in  Middle  of  Line 

Total  Number  of 
Speeches  Ending  in 
Middle  of  Line 

Two  Speeches  in 
One  Line 

Three  Speeches 

Four  Speeches 

Love's  Labour's  Lost 
Comedy  of  Errors  . 
Merchant  of  Venice  . 
Henry  V    

10. 
.6 
22.2 

18  q 

? 
1.23 
17.03 
1  6  OQ 

? 
6 
79 

A."\ 

10 
33 
18 

I 
0 

o 

0 
0 

Q 

Hamlet  

«;i  6 

Of)     TQ 

2O^ 

Othello  

dl  4. 

26  I 

2J.K 

Lear   

6O  Q 

<5Q    08 

2QO 

Macbeth  

77  2 

AQ    A  A 

2-3Q 

127 

J 

Ant.  and  Cleo.  .    .    . 
Winter's  Tale    .    .    . 
Tempest  

77-5 
87.6 
84.5 

? 
66.Q3 
61.86 

? 
340 

253 

IV.     SUMMARY. 

It  is  convenient  to  divide  Shakespeare's  dramatic 
career,  as  far  as  it  concerns  metre,  into  four  parts,  to 
which,  after  the  manner  of  Dowden,  we  may  apply  cer- 
tain fanciful  catch-words. 

Period  I.  The  Vanity  of  Rime.  This  period  is 
characterized  saliently  by  its  large  amount  of  rime, 
with  the  attendant  trickeries  of  alternates,  sonnets,  and 
doggerels.  The  number  of  run-on  lines,  of  feminine 
endings,  of  Alexandrines,  and  of  speeches  ending  within 
the  line,  is  very  small.2  There  are  practically  no  femi- 
nine mid-line  syllables,  practically  no  light  or  weak 


1  The  first  column  is  from  Konig,  p.  134  ;  it  is  decidedly  more  reliable  and 
intelligent  than  columns  two  and  three,  which  are  from  Pulling's  Tables,  be- 
cause it  does  not  include  rimed  and  one-line  speeches  in  reckoning  the  per- 
centage. The  last  three  columns  are  from  Jahrbuch,  XXXI.  p.  340,  and  show 
how  Shakespeare's  habit  increased  of  dividing  one  line  among  several  speeches. 

3  Cf.  Fleay,  Manual,  pp.  131-133,  and  Schipper,  II.  i.,  296. 


6o 


THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 


endings.  This  period  extends  to  1594;  in  it  fall  Love  s 
Labour  s  Lost,  The  Comedy  of  Errors,  The  Two  Gentle- 
men of  Verona,  A  Midsummer  -  Nigh?  s  Dream,  and  Richard 
7//.,1  the  last  lacking  in  rime,  but  belonging  here  by 
every  other  characteristic. 

On  the  border-line  between  this  group  and  the  next 
is  Richard  II. 

As  a  typical  example  of  an  early  passage  in  metre 
I  select  Loves  Labour  s  Lost,  I.  1.33-64. 
Biron.  I  can  but  say  their  protestation  over ; 

So  much,  dear  liege,  I  have  already  sworn, 
That  is,  to  live  and  study  here  three  years. 
But  there  are  other  strict  observances  ; 
As,  not  to  see  a  woman  in  that  term, 
Which  I  hope  well  is  not  enrolled  there ; 
And  one  day  in  a  week  to  touch  no  food 
And  but  one  meal  on  every  day  beside, 
The  which  I  hope  is  not  enrolled  there ; 
And  then,  to  sleep  but  three  hours  in  the  night, 
And  not  be  seen  to  wink  of  all  the  day — 
When  I  was  wont  to  think  no  harm  all  night 
And  make  a  dark  night  too  of  half  the  day — 
Which  I  hope  well  is  not  enrolled  there  : 
O,  these  are  barren  tasks,  too  hard  to  keep, 
Not  to  see  ladies,  study,  fast,  not  sleep  ! 
King.  Your  oath  is  pass'd  to  pass  away  from  these. 

Biron.  Let  me  say  no,  my  liege,  an  if  you  please  : 

I  only  swore  to  study  with  your  grace 
And  stay  here  in  your  court  for  three  years'  space. 
Longaville.      You  swore  to  that,  Biron,  and  to  the  rest. 
Biron.  By  yea  and  nay,  sir,  then  I  swore  in  jest. 

What  is  the  end  of  study  ?  let  me  know. 


1  For  the  sake  of  simplicity  I  avoid  in  this  discussion  those  plays  the  date 
of  composition  of  which  is  not  fixed,  probably  because  they  underwent  revision 
indifferent  periods  of  authorship,  viz.,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  AIVs  Well,  and 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  and  those  in  which  another  hand  than  Shakespeare's  is  to  be 
discerned,  viz.,  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  I,  2,  and  3  Henry  VI.,  Henry 
VIII.,  Titus  Andronicus,  Timon,  and  Pericles. 


SPEECH  ENDINGS  61 


King.  Why,  that  to  know,  which  else  we  should  not  know. 

Biron.  Things  hid  and  barr'd,  you  mean,  from  common  sense  ? 

King.  Ay,  that  is  study's  god-like  recompense. 

Biron.  Come  on,  then ;  I  will  swear  to  study  so, 

To  know  the  thing  I  am  forbid  to  know : 
As  thus, — to  study  where  I  well  may  dine, 

When  I  to  feast  expressly  am  forbid ; 
Or  study  where  to  meet  some  mistress  fine, 
When  mistresses  from  common  sense  are  hid. 

Period  II.  The  Balance  of  Power.  This  period  is 
distinguished  from  the  preceding  mainly  by  the  dimi- 
nution of  riming  lines.  Prose  becomes  a  vital  part  of 
the  Histories.  Enjambement,  double  endings,  caesural 
syllables,  and  broken  speeches  increase,  but  are  still  in- 
significant. Alexandrines  and  short  lines  continue  few, 
and  light  and  weak  endings  are  almost  undiscoverable. 
The  close  of  this  period  marks  Shakespeare's  most  even 
and  easy  balance  of  thought  and  metre.  The  verse's 
internal  structure  is  at  the  perfection  of  its  melody,  and 
the  normal  foot  and  normal  line  are  returned  to  often 
enough  to  be  felt  as  the  units  of  composition.  King 
John,  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i  and  2  Henry  IV.,  The 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  Henry  V.,  Much  Ado  About 
Nothing,  As  You  Like  It,  Twelfth  Night  and  Julius  Caesar 
(1591-1601)  are  here  included.  The  last  shows  some 
of  the  qualities  of  the  Third  Period. 

The  famous  soliloquy  of  the  King,  from  2  Henry  IV., 
III.  1.4-31,  will  serve  as  a  characteristic  instance: — 
How  many  thousands  of  my  poorest  subjects 
Are  at  this  hour  asleep !     O  sleep,  O  gentle  sleep, 
Nature's  soft  nurse,  how  have  I  frighted  thee, 
That  thou  no  more  wilt  weigh  my  eyelids  down 
And  steep  my  senses  in  forgetfulness  ? 
Why  rather,  sleep,  liest  thou  in  smoky  cribs, 
Upon  uneasy  pallets  stretching  thee 
And  hush'd  with  buzzing  night-flies  to  thy  slumber, 
Than  in  the  perfumed  chambers  of  the  great, 


62  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

Under  the  canopies  of  costly  state, 

And  lull'd  with  sound  of  sweetest  melody  ? 

O  thou  dull  god,  why  liest  thou  with  the  vile 

In  loathsome  beds,  and  leavest  the  kingly  couch 

A  watch-case  or  a  common  'larum-bell  ? 

Wilt  thou  upon  the  high  and  giddy  mast 

Seal  up  the  ship-boy's  eyes,  and  rock  his  brains 

In  cradle  of  the  rude  imperious  surge 

And  in  the  visitation  of  the  winds, 

Who  take  the  ruffian  billows  by  the  top, 

Curling  their  monstrous  heads  and  hanging  them 

With  deafening  clamour  in  the  slippery  clouds, 

That,  with  the  hurly,  death  itself  awakes  ? 

Canst  thou,  O  partial  sleep,  give  thy  repose 

To  the  wet  sea-boy  in  an  hour  so  rude, 

And  in  the  calmest  and  most  stillest  night, 

With  all  appliances  and  means  to  boot, 

Deny  it  to  a  king  ?    Then  happy  low,  lie  down  ! 

Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown. 

Period  III.  The  Discordant  Weight  of  Thought.  This 
period  is  far  removed  from  its  predecessor  in  the 
matter  of  Alexandrines  and  short  lines,  mid-line-ending 
speeches,  and  mid-line  feminine  syllables.  The  use  of 
prose  becomes  wider  and  wider  in  range.1  Enjambement 
and  feminine  endings  pursue  their  broken  progress  up 
the  scale.  Rime  remains  on  a  low  level.  Light  and 
weak  endings  are  still  very  infrequent.  This  period  is 
short  (1603-1605),  but  in  it  were  written  the  world's 
greatest  romantic  tragedies,  Hamlet,  Othello,  Lear,  with 
the  great  tragi-comedy,  Measure  for  Measure,  and  the 
burden  of  the  tragic  themes  is  almost  more  than  the 
metre  can  uphold.  The  poet  begins  to  find  that  his 
packed  eagerness  of  thought  and  feverish  excitement  of 
passion  are  at  odds  with  mere  harmony  and  grace. 

1  On  the  development  of  prose  in  this  and  the  following  period  see  the  ad- 
mirable chapter  by  Seccombe  and  Allen,  in  The  Age  of  Shakespeare,  vol.  II., 
pp.  117  ff.  See  also  Janssen,  passim. 


SPEECH  ENDINGS  63 

I  take  part  of  the  scene  between  Hamlet  and  his 
mother  as  an  illustration  (Hamlet,  III.  4.68-102). 

Hamlet.       You  cannot  call  it  love ;  for  at  your  age 

The  hey-day  in  the  blood  is  tame,  it's  humble, 

And  waits  upon  the  judgement :  and  what  judgement 

Would  step  from  this  to  this?     Sense,  sure,  you  have, 

Else  could  you  not  have  motion ;  but  sure,  that  sense 

Is  apoplex'd  ;  for  madness  would  not  err, 

Nor  sense  to  ecstasy  was  ne'er  so  thrall'd 

But  it  reserved  some  quantity  of  choice, 

To  serve  in  such  a  difference.     What  devil  was't 

That  thus  hath  cozen'd  you  at  hoodman-blind  ? 

Eyes  without  feeling,  feeling  without  sight, 

Ears  without  hands  or  eyes,  smelling  sans  all, 

Or  but  a  sickly  part  of  one  true  sense 

Could  not  so  mope. 

O  shame !  where  is  thy  blush  ?     Rebellious  hell, 

If  thou  canst  mutine  in  a  matron's  bones, 

To  flaming  youth  let  virtue  be  as  wax, 

And  melt  in  her  own  fire :  proclaim  no  shame 

When  the  compulsive  ardour  gives  the  charge, 

Since  frost  itself  as  actively  doth  burn 

And  reason  pandars  will. 

Queen.  O  Hamlet,  speak  no  more 

Thou  turn'st  mine  eyes  into  my  very  soul ; 
And  there  I  see  such  black  and  grained  spots, 
As  will  not  leave  their  tinct. 

Hamlet.  Nay,  but  to  live 

In  the  rank  sweat  of  an  enseamed  bed, 
Stew'd  in  corruption,  honeying  and  making  love 
Over  the  nasty  sty, — 

Queen.  O,  speak  to  me  no  more  ; 

These  words,  like  daggers,  enter  in  mine  ears  ; 
No  more,  sweet  Hamlet ! 

Hamlet.  A  murderer  and  a  villain  ; 

A  slave  that  is  not  twentieth  part  the  tithe 
Of  your  precedent  lord  ;  a  vice  of  kings  ; 
A  cutpurse  of  the  empire  and  the  rule, 
That  from  a  shelf  the  precious  diadem  stole, 
And  put  it  in  his  pocket ! 


64  THF  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

Queen.  No  more ! 

Hamlet.       A  king  of  shreds  and  patches. 

Period  IV.  The  License  of  Weak  Endings.  The  gen- 
eral carelessness  of  art  which  stamps  Shakespeare's  final 
period  (1607-1612)  confronts  us  most  strikingly  in  a 
great  crowd  of  light  and  weak  endings,  and  only  less  so 
in  the  climax  of  run-on  lines  and  feminine  endings. 
Rime  has  all  but  vanished.  Alexandrines  and  short 
lines  seem,  if  anything,  to  recede,  but  there  is  no  other 
evidence  to  support  Mr.  Fleay,1  who  surmises  that 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Coriolanus,  Cymbeline,  The  Win- 
ter s  Tale,  and  The  Tempest  were  produced  at  greater 
leisure,  and  more  carefully  polished.  Rather  let  us  say 
that  the  return  to  Stratford  cast  upon  Shakespeare  the 
weight  of  too  much  liberty.  The  poetry  is  so  licentious 
that  it  is  often  difficult  to  distinguish  from  the  chartered 
libertine,  prose.2 

The  dialogue  between  the  Queen  and  Cornelius  in 
Cymbeline  (I.  5.6-42)  will  serve  as  a  typical  example  of 
the  metre  of  this  period,  all  the  more  typical  perhaps 
because  it  is  in  no  sense  a  "  purple"  passage. 

Cornelius.  [Presenting  a  small  box. 

But  I  beseech  your  grace,  without  offence, — 
My  conscience  bids  me  ask — wherefore  you  have 


1  Manual,  p.  133. 

2  Seccombe  and  Allen  (II.,  p.  114)  print  Coriolanus,  II.  2.86-96  as  prose 
and  very  justly  say,   "  Written  thus  this  passage  is  not  quite  obviously  verse, 
and  it  would  be  possible  for  a  dull  ear  to  miss  its  cadences  in  reading.''     Of 
Cymbeline,   Professor    Barrett    Wendell    says  ( William    Shakspere,   p.  357), 
4 '  Endstopped  lines  are  so  deliberately  avoided  that  one  feels  a  sense  of  relief 
when  a  speech  and  a  line  end  together.     Such  a  phrase  as  '  How  slow  his  soul 
sail'd  on,  how  swift  his  ship '  is  deliberately  made,  not  a  single  line,  but  two 
half-lines.     Several  times,  in  the  broken  dialogue,  one  has  literally  to  count  the 
syllables  before  the   metrical   regularity  of   the   verse  appears.  .    .    .  Clearly 
this  puzzling  style  is  decadent ;  the  distinction  between  verse  and  prose  is 
breaking  down." 


SPEECH  ENDINGS 

Commanded  of  me  these  most  poisonous  compounds, 
Which  are  the  movers  of  a  languishing  death ; 
But  though  slow,  deadly  ? 

Queen.  I  wonder,  doctor, 

Thou  ask'st  me  such  a  question.     Have  I  not  been 
Thy  pupil  long?     Hast  thou  not  learn'd  me  how 
To  make  perfumes  ?  distil  ?  preserve  ?  yea,  so 
That  our  great  king  himself  doth  woo  me  oft 
For  my  confections  ?     Having  thus  far  proceeded, — 
Unless  thou  think'st  me  devilish — is't  not  meet 
That  I  did  amplify  my  judgement  in 
Other  conclusions  ?     I  will  try  the  forces 
Of  these  thy  compounds  on  such  creatures  as 
We  count  not  worth  the  hanging,  but  none  human, 
To  try  the  vigour  of  them  and  apply 
Allayments  to  their  act,  and  by  them  gather 
Their  several  virtues  and  effects. 

Cornelius,  Your  highness 

Shall  from  this  practice  but  make  hard  your  heart : 
Besides,  the  seeing  these  effects  will  be 
Both  noisome  and  infectious. 

Queen.  O,  content  thee. 

Enter  Pisanio. 

[Aside]  Here  comes  a  flattering  rascal ;  upon  him 
Will  I  first  work ;  he's  for  his  master, 
And  enemy  to  my  son.     How  now,  Pisanio ! 
Doctor,  your  service  for  the  time  is  ended  ; 
Take  your  own  way. 

Cornelius.  [Aside]  I  do  suspect  you  madam : 

But  you  shall  do  no  harm. 

Queen.  [To  Pisanio']  Hark  thee,  a  word. 

Cornelius.     [Aside]  I  do  not  like  her.     She  doth  think  she  has 
Strange  lingering  poisons :     I  do  not  know  her  spirit 
And  will  not  trust  one  of  her  malice  with 
A  drug  of  such  damn'd  nature.     Those  she  has 
Will  stupefy  and  dull  the  sense  awhile ; 
Which  first,  perchance,  she'll  prove  on  cats  and  dogs, 
Then  afterward  up  higher :  but  there  is 
No  danger  in  what  show  of  death  it  makes, 
More  than  the  locking-up  the  spirits  a  time, 
To  be  more  fresh,  reviving. 


65 


66  THE  METRE  OF  MACBETH 

Between  the  last  two  periods  Macbeth  is  to  be 
placed  in  a  sort  of  dependent  isolation,  belonging  in 
the  Third  by  most  of  its  features,  but  pointing  to  the 
Fourth  with  its  generous  total  of  light  endings. 


APPENDIX  67 


APPENDIX 

By  way  of  Explanation  and  Addition. 

p.  7,  footnote  3.  Prose  in  History  was  familiar  to 
Shakespeare  by  his  work  as  a  reviser  of  2  Henry  VI., 
where  it  appears  in  I.  i,  3,  4;  II.  i,  3;  IV.  2,  3,  6,  7, 
8,  10,  and  is  notable  in  the  humourous  Jack  Cade  scenes. 
It  is  rather  curious  that  when  it  began  to  write  alone 
in  Richard  III.,  Richard  II.,  and  King  John,  he  did  not 
turn  to  it  for  comic  relief. 

p.  19,  footnote  3.  Add  to  the  list  of  rimed  penta- 
meter lines  III.  5.  12,  21,  which  are  in  the  midst  of 
Hecate's  tetrameters. 

p.  35.  Add  to  the  list  of  participles  in  which  the 
e  of  the  ending  is  sounded:  damned  (I.  2.14);  damned 
(III.  6.  10);  charmed  (IV '.  1.9);  charmed  (V.  8.12.) 

p.  36.  The  M.  E.  form  of  captain  was  capitain, 
adopted  from  late  O.  F.  (i4th  C.)  capitaine.  The  New 
English  Dictionary  cites  examples  of  spelling  with  an  i  or 
y  as  late  as  1567.  Probably  the  word  was  still  fre- 
quently pronounced  as  a  trisyllable  in  Shakespeare's 
time.  Cf.  3  Henry  VI.,  IV.  7.30,  "A  wise  stout  cap- 
tain, and  soon  persuaded."  The  French  word  capitaine 
is  used  by  Shakespeare  in  Henry  V.,  IV.  4.70. 


68 


THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 


TABLES    FOR   TWENTY-SIX    PLAYS. 


Play 


Love's  Labour's  Lost... 

Comedy  of  Errors 

Two  Gentlemen 
Mid.  Night's  Dream... 
Richard  III  (F) 


King  John 

Merchant  of  Venice... 

1  Henry  IV. 

2  Henry  IV 

Merry  Wives  (F) 

Henry  V . 

Much'  Ado 

As  You  Like  It 

Twelfth  Night 

Julius  Caesar. 


leasure  for 

Hamlet  

Othello 

Lear.... 


Macbeth , 


Ant.  and  Cleo... 

Coriolanus 

Cvmbeline 

Winter's  Tale... 
Tempest 


77. 

79.0:1608 
85.0' 1609 
87.61610-1612 
84.511610-1611 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Of  books  and  articles  used  and  referred  to. 

The  references  to  the  text  of  Shakespeare  are  to  the  Globe  Edition  ;  of 
Middleton,  to  Bullen's  Edition  in  eight  volumes. 

EDITIONS  OF  MACBETH  : — 

Clarendon  Press  :  W.  G.  Clark  and  W.  A.  Wright  :  pp.  x,  xi. 

Arden  :  E.  K.  Chambers  :  Appendix  on  Metre. 

Pitt  Press  :  A.  W.  Verity  :  Introduction,  and  Appendix  on  Metre. 

Longmans'  English  Classics  :  J.  M.  Manly  :  pp.  xxxii-xxxv. 

Leopold  :  F.  J.  Furnivall :  pp.  xix,  xx,  cxxiii. 

Variorum  :  H.  H.  Furness  :  pp.  259,  303. 

Eversley :  C.  H.  Herford  :  Introduction. 

Elizabethan:  Mark  H.  Liddell:  p.  165. 

WORKS  IN  ENGLISH  : — 

CHARLES  BATHURST  :  Remarks  on  the  Differences  in  Shakespeare's  Versi- 
fication in  Different  Periods  of  his  Life. 


BIBLIO  GRA  PH  Y  69 

GEORGE  L.  CRAIK  :    The  English  of  Shakespeare  :  pp.  28-43. 

WILLIAM  SIDNEY  WALKER  :  Shakespeare's  Versification:  p.  227. 

E.  A.  ABBOTT  :  A  Shakespearean  Grammar :  pp.  328-429. 

FREDERICK  CARD  FLEAY  :  Shakespeare  Manual :  pp.  121-138,  239-261. 

FREDERICK  GARD  FLEAY  :  Introduction  to  Shakespearean  Study  :  p.  36. 

FREDERICK  GARD  FLEAY  :  Life  and  Work  of  Shakespeare:  p,  239. 

C.  M.  INGLEBY  :  Shakespeare,  The  Man  and  the  Book  :  Vol.  II.,  ch.  II., 
pp.  40-49  ;  also  ch.  III.,  pp.  50-141,  by  F.  G.  FLEAY. 

EDWARD  DOWDEN  :  Shakspere  Primer  :  pp.  39-46. 

HIRAM  CORSON  :  Introduction  to  Shakespeare :  pp.  51-82. 

JOHN  ADDINGTON  SYMONDS  :  Blank  Verse  :  Section  II.,  "The  History 
of  Blank  Verse". 

JOSEPH  B.  MAYOR  :   Chapters  on  English  Metre  :  pp.  146-183. 

THOMAS  SECCOMBE  AND  J.  W.  ALLEN  :    The  Age  of  Shakespere  :  Vol.  II., 

pp.    III-I22. 

GEORGE  H.  BROWNE:  Notes  on  Shakspere 's  Versification:  pp.  9,  21. 
RAYMOND  M.  ALDEN  :  English  Verse :  pp.  55,  184  ff.,  226,  437  ff. 
FRANCIS  B.  GUMMERE:  Handbook  of  Poetics :  p.  142. 
ALEXANDER  SCHMIDT  :  Shakespeare  Lexicon  :  Vol.  II.,  p.  1413. 
HALLAM  TENNYSON  :  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson,  A  Memoir:  Vol.  II.,  p.  14. 
G.  C.  MACAULAY  :  Francis  Beaumont :  pp.  43,  44. 
BARRETT  WENDELL  :    William  Shakspere  :  p.  357. 

ENGLISH  ARTICLES  IN  PERIODICALS  : — 

Transactions  of  the  New  Shakspere  Society  1874-75  :  passim  ;  especially 
the  discussion  on  Fleay's  First  Paper  (pp.  17-37)  and  the  article  by  J.  K.  In- 
gram "  On  the  '  Weak  Endings  of  Shakspere  '  "  (pp.  442-464). 

The  same,  1877-79,  pp.  457,  458  :  F.  S.  Pulling  :  "  The  '  Speech-Ending 
Test '  Applied  to  Twenty  of  Shakspere's  Plays." 

The  same,  1 880-6,  pp.  523-562  :  Henry  Sharpe  :  "The  Prose  in  Shak- 
pere's  Plays." 

Englische  Studien  :  Band  III.,  pp.  473-503  :  J.  Harrison,  J.  Goodlet  and 
R.  Boyle  :  "  Report  of  the  Tests  Committee  of  the  St.  Petersburg  Shakespeare 
Circle." 

Transactions  of  the  Philological  Society,  June  1876  :  article  by  A.  J. 
Ellis. 

WORKS  IN  GERMAN  : — 

GOSWIN  K6NIG  :  Der  Vers  in  Shaksperes  Dramen  :  passim. 

J.  SCHIPPER  :  Englische  Metrik,  II.,  i.,  pp.  287-316. 

V.  F.  JANSSEN  :  Die  Prosa  in  Shakespeares  Dramen  :  passim. 

GERMAN  ARTICLES  IN  PERIODICALS  :— 

Jahrbuch  der  Deutchen  Shakespeare-Gesellschaft,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  227-273  :  N. 
Delius  :  "  Die  Prosa  in  Shakespeare's  Dramen." 


70  THE  ME  TRE  OF  MA  CBE  TH 

The  same,  XIII.,  pp.  248-266:  W.  Hertzberg  :  "  Metrisches,  Gram- 
matisches,  Chronologisches  zu  Shakespeares  Dramen." 

The  same,  XXVIII.,  pp.  177-272  :  Julius  Heuser  :  "Der  Coupletreim  in 
Shakespeares  Dramen." 

The  same,  XXXI,  pp.  318-353  :  Hermann  Conrad:  "Metrische  Unter- 
suchungen  zur  Feststellung  der  Abfassungszeit  von  Shakespeares  Dramen." 

Anglia,  XIII,  pp.  353-357  :  A.  Wagner  :  "  Metrische  Bemerkungen  zu 
Shakespeares  Macbeth". 


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